For a time, she even descended into depression and barely slept. “This kind of collective fear has never been seen before. Nobody wants to die,” Wungreichon said while working in the emergency department at the district hospital in Ukhrul, the only government-run medical facility that caters to a population of 180,000. “People have realized that their lives are precious.” (Image: AP)

India has become the fastest country in the world to achieve over 70 lakh vaccinations against COVID-19 in only 26 days, whileit took 27 days for the US and 48 days for the UK to reach the same figures, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday. The ministry also highlighted that 17 states and UTs have not reported any deaths in the last 24 hours.

Till February, 11, 8 AM, more than 70 lakh beneficiaries havebeen administered shots under the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise.

The total cumulative vaccination coverage of 70,17,114 includes 57,05,228 healthcare workers (HCWs) and 13,11,886 frontline workers (FLWs), the ministry said. A total of 1,43,056 sessions have been conducted so far.

The ministry said 4,05,349 beneficiaries (HCWs- 94,890 and FLWs- 3,10,459) were vaccinated on Day-26 (February 10) across 8,308 sessions.

"The number of beneficiaries being vaccinated every day has shown a progressive increase.

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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Coronavirus update: Over 70 lakh vaccinated in India

Till February, 11, 8 AM, more than 70 lakh beneficiaries havebeen administered shots under the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise.

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