COVID-19: 75% healthcare & frontline workers vaccinated in 4 states, says Health Ministry

Over a month after India started its vaccination drive against COVID-19, three states and one union territory- Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Lakshwadeep have already administered the first dose of vaccination to about 75 per cent of the healthcare workers and frontline workers, informed Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary of the Union Health Ministry on Monday. 

8 states and union territories- Bihar, Tripura, Odisha, Chattisgarh, Uttrakhand, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Himachal Pradesh have administered the first dose of the vaccine to more than 75% of the registered healthcare workers, Agnani added. 

Meanwhile, Nagaland, Punjab, Chandigarh, and Puducherry are four states that have administered the first dose of the vaccine to less than 50% of the registered healthcare workers. 

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As per the health industry, a total of 1,14,24,094 have been vaccinated till 6 pm on 22nd February, Monday, which includes 75,40,602 health workers, of which 64,25,060 have received the first dose and 11,15,542 have received the second. 

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Covid-19 Tally

The briefing comes on a day when about 86.3 per cent of the new cases are from five states, with Maharashtra alone reporting over 6,971 cases, followed by Kerala with 2,212 COVID-19 cases and Tamil Nadu with 452 cases, as per the data released by the central government. 

The data also highlights that seven States/Union Territories, including Uttrakhand, Ladakh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, and Arunachal Pradesh have not reported any new cases. 

No hospitalization reported: Manohar Agnani

Agnani during the briefing also highlighted that no complications related to the vaccine, leading to hospitalization has been reported in the past 24 hours. In total, 46 people have been hospitalized after receiving the vaccination, of which 26 have been discharged after treatment while 1 is still undergoing treatment. The total number of COVID deaths stands at 19, of which only two have been attributed to the vaccination. 

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India started its first phase of COVID-19 vaccination on January 16- using the two vaccines of Serum Institute of India (Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (Covaxin).

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(with inputs from ANI)