COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker: 45.82 lakh doses administered in India on July 5

More than 45.82 lakh vaccine doses were administered in India on July 5, the Union Health Ministry's latest provisional report suggested. With that, the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 35.75 crore.

On the 171st day of the vaccination drive on July 5, 27.88 lakh beneficiaries received their first shot and 17.93 lakh people were given their second dose.

The government has revised the gap between the two doses for the Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, to 12-16 weeks. However, the interval for the second dose of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin remains unchanged.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the nationwide vaccination drive on January 16, with healthcare workers at the frontline of India's COVID-19 battle getting their first jabs. The country began the second phase of the vaccination drive from March 1, in which, everyone above 60 years of age and those over 45 years with comorbidities could start getting the vaccine.

From April 1, vaccination was opened for everyone aged 45 and above with or without comorbidities.

India rolled out the third phase of its COVID-19 vaccination drive for those in the 18-44 age group on May 1.

The central government has 'liberalised' the vaccination drive to allow states, private hospitals, and industrial establishments to procure the doses directly from manufacturers. However, later it announced to provide free COVID-19 vaccines to everyone above the age of 18 years from June 21. The new COVID-19 vaccination policy is a significant shift from the government's 'liberalised and accelerated' policy, announced earlier.

Registration on CoWIN platform for the third phase began on April 28 and is mandatory for the 18-44 age group.

Here are key developments related to the COVID-19 vaccination process:

- Delhi has administered a total of 83,82,845 Covid vaccine doses till July 5, according to the city government's daily bulletin. As many as 19,10,694 people have been fully vaccinated while 64,72,151 have received the first dose of the vaccine, the bulletin said.

- Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot accused the Centre on the day of not allotting COVID vaccines to the state in sufficient numbers.

- More than 2.01 crore balance and unutilised COVID-19 vaccine doses are still available with states, union territories and private hospitals to be administered, the Union Health Ministry said on the day. Over 36.97 crore vaccine doses have been provided to states and UTs so far through all sources. Of this, the total consumption including wastage is 34,95,74,408 doses, the ministry said.

- The West Bengal government started the COVID-19 vaccination on boat programme on the day in an island of Sundarbans and inoculated 150 people, most of whom are migrant labourers, South 24 Parganas District Magistrate P Ulganathan said. A boat carrying health officials reached Kumirmari island for the programme and it will be stationed there for five more days, he said.

- An 83-year-old woman died while going home after getting the second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in Guna in Madhya Pradesh on the day, officials said. Shanti Bai was brought to the vaccination center by an anganwadi worker and a nurse administered the second dose of the vaccine at 11:56 am, after which she rested at the centre for some time, and then left for home on her own, they said.

- The Delta variant of coronavirus is eight times less sensitive to antibodies generated by vaccines as compared to the original strain that came from China's Wuhan, according to a new study. The study, which was conducted on more than 100 healthcare workers (HCWs) at three centres in India including Sir Ganga Ram Hospital (SGRH) in Delhi, found that the B.1.617.2 Delta variant not only dominates vaccine-breakthrough infections with higher respiratory viral loads compared to non-Delta infections (Ct value of 16.5 versus 19) but also generates greater transmission among the fully vaccinated HCWs.

(With inputs from PTI)