1.47 lakh people above 60 and 45-plus with comorbidities get Covid shots on opening day

NEW DELHI: On a day the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive opened for people above 60 and those between 45-59 years with specific comorbidities, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first one to take the jab at the AII India Institute of Medical Sciences in the national capital.

The glitches in the CoWin platform, which has been designed to drive the initiative, meant that most who wanted to register for inoculation could not do so but the figures by the Centre showed that over 1.47 lakh citizens in the new category of beneficiaries still managed to take the shots on the first day of the second phase of the vaccination drive. 

A total of about 4.27 lakh jabs were administered on Monday and the majority, nearly 65% were healthcare and frontline workers, who are being covered from before. 

Among the general citizens, who were inoculated on Monday, 1,28, 630 were the elderly while 18, 850 were people under 60 with underlying conditions. Though the details shared by the government did not specify it, sources said that most of the vaccinations in this category were through walk-in facilities.

The Centre however did not make public the state-wise breakup of the vaccination figures for the day. It also did not share the break of vaccinations carried out in government and private health facilities. 

A total of over 29 lakh potential beneficiaries registered on the CoWin portal on Monday out of which, about 26 lakh are citizens while the rest are healthcare and frontline workers.

About 6.44 lakh appointments were booked by the citizen beneficiaries, said the Union health ministry in a statement.

The total number of vaccinations in the country have reached 1,47,28,569 on Monday as per the provisional reports. These include 66,95,665 healthcare workers who have taken the first dose and 25,57,837 healthcare workers who have taken the second dose.

This also includes 53,27,587 frontline workers who started getting inoculation on February 1.  Of the total 4,27,072 vaccinations carried out on Monday, the forty-fifth day of the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive, 3,25,485 were vaccinated for the first dose and 1,01,587 healthcare workers received the second dose of vaccine as per the provisional report.