Indian scientists and health warriors have risen to the occasion and the vaccines being developed and manufactured in India will help our people as well as humanity at large in escaping from the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said.
PM Modi has conveyed this to Maldivian President Ibrahim Solih on Twitter while responding to the latter's congratulatory message over India's "landmark programme" to vaccinate the curreIndian population against COVID-19.
The prime minister launched the vaccination drive with healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs on January 16.
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A total of 3,81,305 beneficiaries have so far been vaccinated for COVID-19 and 580 adverse events following immunisation were reported in the country till now, the Union health ministry has said.
On January 18, 1,48,266 people received the vaccine. Of these, 8,656 were from Bihar, 1,822 from Assam, 36,888 from Karnataka, 7,070 from Kerala, 6,665 from Madhya Pradesh, 7,628 from Tamil Nadu, 10,352 from Telangana, 11,588 from West Bengal and 3,111 were from Delhi.#CoronaVaccineDrive Update
More than 3.81 lakh beneficiaries have been vaccinated across the country so far.
No case of serious/severe AEFI reported@PMOIndia #Unite2FightCorona pic.twitter.com/avXO0JXXEo
— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) January 18, 2021
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 -- 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.
Here are all developments related to the COVID-19 vaccine in India:
> More than 30,000 people have received shots of the COVID-19 vaccine in the first couple of days of inoculation in Bihar, where the coronavirus has claimed nearly 1,500 lives so far, the state health department has said.
> A 43-year-old health department employee in Karnataka died of a massive heart attack on January 18, two days after he was administered COVID-19 vaccine, the government said. The deceased, Nagaraju of Ballari district, was a permanent employee of Health department.
> Over 300 healthcare workers in Pune district of Maharashtra have reported minor side effects after they were administered COVID-19 vaccine on January 16, while a woman worker was hospitalised after she complained of loss of sensation in her arms, officials said.
> A total of 3,299 healthcare workers were vaccinated for COVID-19 in Himachal Pradesh on January 18, Special Secretary (health) Nipun Jindal said. He said on 1,536 healthcare workers were vaccinated on January 16.
> Several Indian companies are considering buying COVID-19 vaccines for their employees, once they become available commercially, just days after the government began a huge vaccination drive.
> As many as 7,891 health workers have taken the Covishield vaccine on the second day of the inoculation drive in Kerala, Health Minister KK Shailaja said.
> A 46-year-old health worker died in Uttar Pradesh's Moradabad district a day after receiving the coronavirus vaccination, with the autopsy report attributing the death to "cardio-pulmonary disease", officials said. The family of Mahipal, who was working as ward boy in state-run Deen Dayal Upadhaya Hospital, said he was not suffering from any ailment other than fever and cough, and blamed his death on vaccination. But the state government said the man died due to septicemic shock and cardiac arrest and the death was not related to the COVID-19 vaccination.
(With inputs from agencies)
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