New Delhi, Jan 24 (PTI) Over 16 lakh healthcare workers across the country have received COVID-19 vaccine jabs till the evening of the ninth day of the nationwide immunisation drive, as per provisional reports, the Union health ministry said on Sunday.

A healthcare worker receives a dose of COVISHIELD, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a school converted into a vaccine centre at Sanand, on the outskirts of Ahmedabad, India January 21, 2021. REUTERS/Amit Dave

The ministry said that 31,466 beneficiaries were vaccinated on Sunday till 7:30 pm in five states — Haryana (907), Karnataka (2,472), Punjab (1,007), Rajasthan (24,586) and Tamil Nadu (2,494) — through 693 sessions.

“The cumulative number of healthcare workers vaccinated against COVID-19 has crossed 16 lakh (16,13,667) till 7.30 pm today through 28,613 sessions, as per the provisional report,” the ministry said, adding that the final report will be completed by late in the night.

“Only 10 adverse events following immunisation have been reported till 7.30 pm on the ninth day of the vaccination drive,” it stated.

The inoculation drive was launched on January 16 with over three crore healthcare and frontline workers prioritised to get the jabs initially

The total number of beneficiaries, who were vaccinated till 7.30 pm on Sunday since the launch of the drive, include 1,47,030 in Andhra Pradesh, 76,125 in Bihar, 53,529 in Kerala, 1,91,443 in Karnataka, 61,720 in Tamil Nadu, 25,811 in Delhi, 78,466 in Gujarat and 84,505 in West Bengal, according to provisional reports.