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    HomeNewscoronavirusWith 66 lakh doses on Wednesday, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crosses 154.5 crore

    With 66 lakh doses on Wednesday, India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crosses 154.5 crore

    More than 26,19,670 precaution doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities since January 10.

    PTI
    January 12, 2022 / 22:52 IST
    COVID-19 vaccination drive begins for children in the age group of 15 to 18 years at Government Model Senior Secondary School in Manimajra, Chandigarh. (Image: ANI)

    India's COVID-19 vaccination coverage crossed 154.50 crore on Wednesday with more than 66 lakh vaccine doses being administered till 7 pm, the Union Health Ministry said. More than 26,19,670 precaution doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered to healthcare workers, frontline workers and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities since January 10.

    Also, 2,96,94,734 first doses have been given to beneficiaries in the 15-18 years age group so far. As many as 66,77,685 doses were administered by 7 pm on Wednesday. The daily vaccination tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports by late night.

    ALSO READ: Surge in COVID-19 cases across India; Mumbai, Bengaluru Urban, Kolkata, among districts of concern: Health Ministry

    The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 last year with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2 last year. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1, 2021 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

    The country launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1, 2021. The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1 last year.

    COVID-19 Vaccine

    Frequently Asked Questions

    View more
    How does a vaccine work?

    A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

    How many types of vaccines are there?

    There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

    What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

    Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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    The next phase of vaccination has commenced from January 3 this year for adolescents in the age group of 15-18 years. India began administering precaution dose of COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers, frontline workers, including personnel deployed for election duty and those aged 60 and above with comorbidities, from January 10 amid the country witnessing a spike in coronavirus infections fuelled by Omicron variant of the virus.

    PTI
    first published: Jan 12, 2022 10:52 pm

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