A healthcare worker receives a dose of Covishield, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a government-run hospital at Baruipur on the outskirts of Kolkata. (Image: Reuters)

A total of 56,36,868 people, including 52,66,175 healthcare workers, or 54.7 percent of the total healthcare workers registered on CoWIN app, have been vaccinated so far, Health Ministry Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani said on February 6.

He said since the vaccination of front-line workers began on February 2, a total of 3,70,693, or 4.5 percent of the current database, front-line workers have also been covered.

Earlier in the day, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan urged all states and Union territories to exponentially pace up their vaccination drive.

Agnani said the top 13 states that have covered over 60 percent of their healthcare workers are: Bihar 76.6 percent, Madhya Pradesh 76.1 percent, Tripura 76 percent, Uttarakhand 71.5 percent, Mizoram 69.7 percent, Uttar Pradesh 69 percent, Kerala 68.1 percent, Odisha 67.6 percent, Rajasthan 67.3 percent, Himachal Pradesh 66.8 percent, Lakshadweep 64.5 percent, Andaman 62.9 percent, and Chhattisgarh 60.5 percent.

The 12 states with the coverage of less than 40 percent of their total health worker database are: Assam 39.9 percent, Delhi 37.1 percent, Punjab 33.7 percent, Jammu and Kashmir 33.6 percent, Dadra and Nagar Haveli 31.9 percent, Ladakh 31.7 percent, Tamil Nadu 28 percent, Chandigarh 27.7 percent, Meghalaya 21.7 percent, Nagaland 21 percent, Manipur 17.4 percent, and Puducherry 13.6 percent.

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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COVID-19 vaccination | 54 percent of total healthcare workers registered on CoWIN app inoculated

Since the vaccination of front-line workers began on February 2, a total of 3,70,693, or 4.5 percent of the current database, front-line workers have also been covered.

A healthcare worker receives a dose of Covishield, a COVID-19 vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India, at a government-run hospital at Baruipur on the outskirts of Kolkata. (Image: Reuters)

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