Reena Jani, 34, a health worker, receives the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca at Mathalput Community Health Centre, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Koraput. (Image: Reuters)

At least 37,44,334 beneficiaries have, so far, been vaccinated for COVID-19 through 68,962 sessions, the health ministry has said in a provisional report.

India carried out the fifth-highest number of COVID-19 vaccinations by inoculating 2.03 million people till January 26, the ministry said. Addressing a press conference, health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that India was the fastest country to reach 1 million COVID-19 vaccinations in six days, while it took the US 10 days, Spain 12, Israel 14, the UK 18, Italy 19, Germany 20 and UAE 27 days.

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

India’s drug regulator has approved two vaccines—Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford-AstraZeneca stable that is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII)—for emergency use in the country.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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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. Several states have now extended the drive to cover other frontline workers like police and civic body staff.

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

> Gujarat launched a COVID-19 vaccination drive for frontline workers on January 31, covering over 70,000 beneficiaries in a single day, with district collectors, police officials and civic commissioners taking the jabs among others in the initial hours, an official statement said. As against the target to cover over one lakh beneficiaries for the day, 71,534 frontline workers were vaccinated till 8 pm, it said.

> Vaccination drive was on hold in Odisha and will remain suspended on February 1 and February 2, too, as well in view of the pulse polio immunisation programme, a senior health and family welfare department official said. The COVID-19 vaccination programme will resume on February 3, he said. As many as 2,08,424 health care workers have been inoculated in the state so far.

> A 30-year-old sanitation worker Jignesh Solanki died around two hours after being administered a coronavirus vaccine in Gujarat's Vadodara on January 31. A postmortem examination has been ordered to ascertain the cause of death, officials said. While the family members blamed the vaccine, officials said he may have died due to a heart attack as he had the ailment since 2016 and was not taking medicines.

> The European Union has said that pharma giant AstraZeneca has agreed to supply 9 million more vaccine doses to the 27-nation bloc in the first quarter.

> Telangana governor Tamilisai Soundarajan has said she would take the COVID-19 vaccine jab during the second phase along with the public.

> As the demand for the COVID-19 vaccine intensified around the world, China said it had increased the number of vaccines undergoing clinical trials to 16 from 11.

Here is the state-wise vaccination data:

States	Total Beneficiaries
Andhra Pradesh	1,87,252
Arunachal Pradesh	9,651
Assam	38,106
Bihar	1,46,015
Chandigarh	3,447
Chhattisgarh	72,704
Delhi	56,818
Goa	4,117
Gujarat	2,46,054
Haryana	1,25,898
Himachal Pradesh	27,734
Jharkhand	40,726
Karnataka	3,15,370
Kerala	1,58,687
Madhya Pradesh	2,98,376
Maharashtra	2,69,064
Odisha	2,06,424
Punjab	57,499
Rajasthan	3,29,611
Tamil Nadu	1,05,821
Telangana	1,68,606
Uttar Pradesh	4,63,793
Uttarakhand	28,791
West Bengal	2,43,069
Miscellaneous	52,120

(With inputs from PTI)

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COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker News: Over 37 lakh beneficiaries receive the jab in India

The vaccination drive is being expanded to include other frontline workers such as police and civil administration staff.

Reena Jani, 34, a health worker, receives the vaccine developed by Oxford/AstraZeneca at Mathalput Community Health Centre, during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Koraput. (Image: Reuters)

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