COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker News: Over 1.9 lakh beneficiaries receive coronavirus vaccine in India on January 21

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A total of 9,99,065 beneficiaries have so far been vaccinated for COVID-19 through 18,159 sessions held till the evening of January 21, the sixth day of the immunisation drive, according to a provisional report of the Union Health Ministry.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the vaccination drive with healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs on January 16.

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

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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.

India, one of the world's biggest drugmakers, has been approached by numerous countries for its anti-coronavirus doses.

The country has delivered two million vaccine doses to Bangladesh under the grants assistance programme on January 21. The country sent 1,50,000 doses of Covishield vaccines to Bhutan, 1,00,000 doses to the Maldives on January 20 and 1 million doses of Covishield vaccine to Nepal, to which Nepal Prime Minister KP Oli has thanked the Indian government.

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

> Altogether 3,091 beneficiaries received COVID-19 vaccine shots in Assam on January 21, taking the total number of inoculated people in the state to 10,676, the National Health Mission (NHM) said.

> At least 7,692 people received shots of 'Covishield' vaccine on the day at 94 centres across West Bengal, according to a senior health department official.

> Over 5,900 healthcare workers received COVID-19 vaccine shots in Delhi on the day, the fourth scheduled day of the inoculation exercise in the city, while two persons needed hospitalisation after adverse events following immunisation, according to data shared by officials.

> As many as 696 healthcare workers in Himachal Pradesh were administered COVID-19 vaccine shots on the day, a health official said.

> The total number of persons who got the coronavirus vaccine administered in Andhra Pradesh crossed the one lakh mark on the day as 23,338 underwent the process on the sixth day.

> SII, the world's biggest vaccine maker, has said that production of the AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine would not be affected by a deadly fire at its headquarters in Pune, Maharashtra.

> COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is as high as 39 percent in the Delhi-NCR with about one-fifth of the respondents saying that they will not take the jab, according to a telephonic survey conducted by the NCAER.

(With inputs from PTI)