As many as 1.91 lakh people were inoculated in India on day one of the world’s largest immunisation exercise against the coronavirus. 

Calling it a success, the Union Health Ministry said “no case of post-vaccination hospitalisation has been reported so far”, indicating there was no known incident of severe adverse reaction.

India on Sunday reported 15,144 new Covid-19 cases and 181 deaths in the past 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said. The overall case tally touched 1,05,57,985, with 2,08,826 active cases and 1,52,274 deaths.

India will administer shots to three crore frontline workers in phase one. There are 3,006 session sites across the country, where 100 beneficiaries each will be given either of India’s two indigenous vaccines, Covaxin or Covishield. Every beneficiary will need to receive two doses of the same vaccine, 28 days apart.

On the break-up of Covishield and Covaxin, the Ministry data showed that while the first vaccine, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca and manufactured by Pune’s Serum Institute, had been supplied to all states and Union territories, the indigenously developed Covaxin was administered in “clinical trial mode” in 12 states, including the national capital. Each session site could administer only one of the two vaccines.

During the vaccination drive, Maharashtra recorded 14 cases of adverse events, however, none of them were fatal. State officials currently studying them.

Since the pandemic hit India in early 2020, over one crore and 5.42 lakh people have been infected with the disease, while close to 1.52 lakh have died. At present, Kerala and Maharashtra are reporting the highest number of daily cases.

Source: The Indian Express

BDST: 1334 HRS, JAN 17, 2021
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