BackCovid vaccine: India inoculates nearly 16 lakh in a week after slow start
In a span of 24 hours, close to 2 lakh (1,91,609) people were vaccinated across 3,512 sessions27,920 sessions have been conducted so far, according to the Health Ministry
PremiumAfter a slow start, India's Covid-19 vaccination numbers are gradually picking up with nearly 16 lakh (15,82,201) beneficiaries been vaccinated since 16 January, when the mass inoculation drive was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a span of 24 hours, close to 2 lakh (1,91,609) people were vaccinated across 3,512 sessions. 27,920 sessions have been conducted so far, according to the Health Ministry.
The country took only six days to roll out 1 million Covid-19 vaccine doses. This count is higher for countries like the USA and the UK. The UK took 18 days whereas America took 10 days to reach the 1 million mark.
PM Modi had launched the inoculation drive with the government prioritising three crore health and frontline workers for the initial phase. Two vaccines are being used -- Covaxin and Covishield, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by Serum Institute of India.
The number of beneficiaries receiving coronavirus vaccine shots crossed the one million mark on Friday even as PM Modi sought to dispel fears among a section of people over the injections asserting that all sorts of things are said in politics but the inoculation drive was launched only after nod from scientists.
Amid concerns expressed by some over the emergency-use clearance given to Bharat Biotech's Covaxin, PM Modi interacted virtually with healthcare workers of his Lok Sabha constituency Varanasi and told them that when doctors and healthcare workers have given a clean chit to the vaccine, it sends a very strong message among people about the efficacy of the shots.
The government has also sent consignments of coronavirus vaccines under grant assistance to Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Mauritius and Seychelles and is undertaking commercial supplies of the doses to a number of countries, including Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Brazil and Morocco.
Meanwhile, Covaxin has showed enhanced immune response without any serious side effects in the participants enrolled for the phase one trials, according to the results published in The Lancet Infectious Disease journal.
The vaccine, codenamed BBV152, was well tolerated in all dose groups with no vaccine-related serious adverse events, noted the authors of the study funded by Bharat Biotech.
According to the health ministry, more than 1,238 cases of adverse effects after vaccination (AEFI) have been reported till now.
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