COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker News: Over 37.5 lakh beneficiaries receive the jab in India

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At least 37,58,843 beneficiaries have, so far, been vaccinated for COVID-19 through 69,215 sessions, the health ministry has said in a provisional report.

The government proposed a budget outlay of Rs 2,23,846 crore for health and wellbeing in 2021-2022 on February 1, an increase of 137 percent from the previous year, with Rs 35,000 crore earmarked for COVID-19 vaccine in the upcoming fiscal.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan lauded the move and thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for moving health and well-being to the centre stage of India's governance as the country battled COVID-19.

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PM Modi launched the vaccination drive on January 16 with healthcare workers getting the jab.

India’s drug regulator has approved two vaccines—Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford-AstraZeneca stable that is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII)—for emergency use in the country.

According to the government, the shots will be offered first to an estimated one crore healthcare workers and around two crore frontline workers, and then to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities. Several states have now extended the drive to cover other frontline workers like police and civic body staff.

Here are all developments related to the COVID-19 vaccine in India:

> A total of 40,782 healthcare staffers were administeredCOVID-19 vaccines at 531 centres held on February 1 across Maharashtra, taking the tally of those inoculated so far to more than 3 lakh, the state government said. According to an official statement, 40,311 of the beneficiaries were administered Covishield vaccine. The remaining 471 beneficiaries received Covaxin jabs, the government said.

> The Goa health department has warned of discontinuing the supply of COVID-19 vaccines to the private hospitals which are found to be inoculating people who are not healthcare workers.

> Delhi Lt Governor Anil Baijal has emphasised the need to scale up COVID-19 vaccination and asked everyone to exercise caution to contain any possibility of resurgence of the infection.

> As many as 5,700 people were administered the COVID-19 vaccine in Himachal Pradesh on the day, taking the number of those who have received the jabs so far in the state to 33,452, a senior health official said. A total of 7,614 health workers were to be administered the vaccine across 85 sessions the day, out of which 5,700 could be given the jabs which is 75 percent coverage, he said.

> Consignments of made-in-India vaccines have reached Algeria and South Africa. "Arrival in Algeria. A trusted partnership stands renewed," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted on the day, using the hashtag 'Vaccine Maitri'.

> The Gandhian spirit of protecting the society's most vulnerable is being invoked by health officials as the UK achieved its target of administering life-saving jabs to a majority of care home residents and staff as part of its COVID-19 phased vaccination programme.

Here is the state-wise vaccination data:

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