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    India crosses 4-crore vaccination doses figure

    A total of 4,11,55,978 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till Friday 7pm. As many as 18,16,161 people were vaccinated during the day.
    PTI
    March 20, 2021 / 08:31 IST
    Representative image of the COVID-19 vaccination process: Reuters

    India has scaled a landmark peak in its fight against COVID-19 with the total doses administered in the country having crossed 4 crore till Friday evening, the Union health ministry said.

    A total of 4,11,55,978 vaccine doses have been given, as per the provisional report till Friday 7pm. As many as 18,16,161 people were vaccinated during the day.

    The total figure includes 76,86,920 healthcare workers (HCWs) who have taken the first dose and 47,69,469HCWs who have taken the second dose, 79,10,529 frontline workers (FLWs) who have been administered the first dose and 23,16,922 FLWs who have been given the second dose.

    Besides, 1,53,78,622 beneficiaries more than 60 years old and 30,93,516 individuals aged 45 to 60 with specific co-morbidities have taken the first dose.

    "Total 18,16,161 vaccine doses were given till 7 pm on Friday, the sixty-third day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive.

    COVID-19 Vaccine

    Frequently Asked Questions

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    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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    "Out of which 16,43,357 beneficiaries were vaccinated for 1st dose and 1,72,804 HCWs and FLWs received 2nd dose of vaccine as per the provisional report," the ministry said adding final reports would be completed for the day by late night.

    The 16,43,357 figure includes 12,00,856 beneficiaries aged above 60 and 3,13,518 individuals aged 45-60 with comorbidities.

    The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers getting inoculated and vaccination of the frontline workers started from February 2.

    The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1for those who are over 60 years of age and for people aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions.

    PTI

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