After a review of the first day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Health Ministry on Saturday evening said 1,65,714 people were vaccinated as per the provisional reports. It said 16,755 personnel were involved in organising the immunisation session sites. “No case of post-vaccination hospitalisation has been reported so far,’’ it said.
It said a few issues came up including delay in uploading beneficiary lists at some sites and healthcare workers were vaccinated though not scheduled. “Resolutions were provided for both the issues.’’
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the launch of the world’s largest vaccination drive marked the culmination of five months’ hard work and that it has been a day of tremendous relief.
“With our population and a history of Universal Immunization Program which involves targeted vaccination against 12 vaccine-preventable diseases, India stands at the cusp of recording history and shows the way to peers across the globe. After smallpox and polio, it is the turn of COVID-19. All the remote, hard to reach areas, urban slums, tribal belts are all covered in Saturday’s exercise,” he said.
Dr. Vardhan said more than a lakh vaccinators were trained and multiple mock exercises and a pan-India national exercise were conducted to hammer out the slightest glitches.
“Technology was used to bolster performance as the eVIN platform was re-purposed to CoWIN, SMS sent to all beneficiaries since the last two days [for Saturday’s session] which would be repeated on schedule for their second dose and across all beneficiaries in all sessions.”
The Minister said a pro-active, pre-emptive and graded approach with a meticulous monitoring of the trajectory of the disease, effective clinical management have enabled a valiant fight and saved Indian people to a very large extent.
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He noted that India has the highest recovery — more than 96% — and the lowest fatality rate below 1.5%.
Calling the vaccines the “route to victory”, he said: “The vaccine will be remembered like a Sanjeevani for clinching the victory over COVID-19.”
“We need to counter the rumours and myth mongering in relation to administering the vaccines. People should not be misguided by the misinformation campaigns and believe only credible and authentic information.’’
The Minister visited the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Gangaram Hospital, where he interacted with the healthcare and frontline workers and saluted their spirit of serving the nation. “We have been safe because of your continued and selfless contribution for so many months.’’