COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: Over 1.1 crore Indians vaccinated so far

Representative image: Reuters

At least 1,10,85,173 beneficiaries have been vaccinated for COVID-19 through 2,30,888 sessions in India, a provisional report of the Union Health Ministry has said, as the process of giving the second and final dose of the vaccine is underway.

The beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after the first jab are now being given the second dose as well. The DCGI accorded a window of four weeks to six weeks for the second dose.

The total COVID-19 vaccine beneficiaries include 63,91,544 healthcare workers (first dose), 9,60,642 healthcare workers (second dose) and 37,32,987 frontline workers (first dose).

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the vaccination drive with healthcare workers getting their first jabs on January 16.

India’s drug regulator has approved two vaccines—Covaxin developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford-AstraZeneca stable 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 with associated comorbidities.

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

> Punjab Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu has warned healthcare workers who do not get the COVID-19 vaccine shot of not allowing them quarantine leave if they get infected at a later stage. He further said they will have to bear the cost of their treatment.

> Nepal has received the one million doses of Covishield vaccine it bought from India's Serum Institute, in a major boost to the country's fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.

> A total of 1,55,054 people have thus far received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine across Assam, while 11,118 people were administered the second dose, said the National Health Mission (NHM). Meanwhile, an anganwadi worker, who received the jab on February 8 in neighbouring Lakhimpur district, died due to septicemia and multi-organ failure, but doctors claimed her death is not related to vaccination.

> The Kerala government has asked the Centre to release more doses of COVID 19 vaccine to the state and sought permission for health workers, who missed the opportunity, to register again to receive the shot. State Health Minister KK Shailaja shot off a letter to her counterpart at the Centre, Harsh Vardhan in this regard.

> UN chief Antonio Guterres has voiced appreciation for India's leadership in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic and its efforts to bring a much-needed supply of the COVID-19 vaccines to the world market.

(With inputs from PTI)