The process to give second shot of the Covid-19 vaccine began in India on Saturday as the first batch of those who received the jab on January 16 get their booster shot today.
While the second shot is taken after 28 days, experts have said recipients have a window of two weeks. This means that the doses will need to be taken 4-6 weeks after the first were administered.
Recipients are getting automated SMS messages and even phone calls to remind them of their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine.
As many as 1,91,181 healthcare workers had received Covid-19 jab on January 16 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the first phase of the world's largest vaccination drive. India is using two vaccines - Covishield developed by Oxford/Astrazeneca and manufactured by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin developmed by Bharat Biotech which is yet to release its second phase trial data.
So far, 77.66 lakh healthcare and frontline workers have been vaccinated against Covid-19 on the 28th day of the countrywide inoculation programme.
The cumulative number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated against COVID-19 till 6 pm on Friday is 77,66,319 as per the provisional report, the ministry said.
These include 58,65,813 healthcare workers (58.9 per cent of the target number) and 19,00,506 frontline workers (21.2 per cent of the target beneficiaries) whose vaccination started on February 2, it said.
"A total 2,61,309 beneficiaries were vaccinated till 6 pm on Friday across 35 states and UTs. These include 50,837 HCWs and 2,10,472 FLWs as per provisional figures," the ministry said, adding that the final report would be completed by late night.
Ten states which recorded the highest number of vaccinations on Friday are Uttar Pradesh (68,135), Maharashtra (24,946), Madhya Pradesh (21,897), Jammu and Kashmir (17,900), West Bengal (17,609), Gujarat (16,069), Karnataka (13,741), Chhattisgarh (11,988), Jharkhand (10,488) and Odisha (7,279), said Mandeep Bhandari, joint secretary in the Ministry.
Twelve states and Union Territories - Bihar, Tripura, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Himachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Kerala, Mizoram, Chhattisgarh, Sikkim and Rajasthan have vaccinated over 70 per cent of the registered HCWs, he said.
On the other hand, eight states and UTs have reported less than 40 per cent coverage of vaccinating HCWs. These are Delhi, Punjab, Chandigarh, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, and Puducherry. A total of 33 people have been hospitalized so far which comprises 0.0004 per cent of the total vaccinations.
Of the 33 cases of hospitalization, 21 were discharged after treatment, while 10 died and two are under treatment, the ministry said. In the last 24 hours, one person who is suffering from Anaphylaxis has been treated at Murshidabad Medical College and Hospital, West Bengal and has been discharged. A total of 24 deaths have been recorded till date. These comprise 0.0003 per cent of the total vaccinations, the ministry said. No new death has been reported in the past 24 hours, the ministry said.
"No case of serious/severe AEFI/Death is attributable to the vaccination till date," Bhandari stated.
States and UTs have been advised that all HCWs should be scheduled for vaccination at least once by February 20 this year and through mop-up rounds by February 25.
The scheduling of all FLWs for vaccination at least once by March 1, 2021 and mop-up rounds of FLWs by March 6, 2021 has also been advised, the ministry said.
The 77,66,319 beneficiaries who have been vaccinated include 4,51,621 from Bihar, 3,40,223 from Kerala, 4,90,746 from Karnataka, 5,09,168 from Madhya Pradesh, 6,33,519 from Maharashtra, 1,66,725 from Delhi, 6,61,508 from Gujarat, 8,31,556 from Uttar Pradesh and 4,70,912 from West Bengal, according to the provisional report.
(With PTI inputs)
