COVID-19: MoS Defence says 62,464 cases reported in Armed Forces, 98% fully vaccinated

A total of 62,464 Armed Forces personnel have tested positive for COVID-19 until now, MoS Defence Ajay Bhatt informed the Rajya Sabha on Monday, July 26. He was responding to TRS MP Banda Prakash's unstarred question on the details of the infection spread in the Army, Navy and Air Force. While 184 personnel have passed away due to COVID-19, Bhatt said that no special compensation is provided for deaths occurring due to infectious disease, citing the rules of the Armed Forces.

Meanwhile, the Centre confirmed that all serving defence personnel, including those stationed at the borders and personnel from the Border Roads Organisation are being vaccinated against COVID-19 since January 16. This was in response to an unstarred question asked by DMK Rajya Sabha MP Tiruchi Siva. The MoS Defence revealed, "Till now 100% of these defence personnel have been vaccinated with the 1st dose and 98% have been vaccinated with the 2nd dose". 

India's COVID-19 vaccination drive

Apart from Covishield and Covaxin, the Drugs Controller General of India approved Sputnik V and Moderna on April 12 and June 29 respectively. Moreover, the Union government declared that those vaccines that have been granted emergency approval for restricted use by USFDA, EMA, UK MHRA, PMDA Japan, or which are listed in WHO (Emergency Use Listing) will be granted emergency use approval in India. In a huge announcement on April 19, the Centre allowed the vaccination of all adults from May 1 onwards.

But, the vaccination drive was adversely affected since May 1 owing to a shortage of doses and the decentralized vaccine procurement policy. Addressing the nation on June 7, PM Modi rolled back this policy and announced that the Centre will procure 75% of the vaccine stock and distribute it to the states for free from June 21. Most importantly, this stock can now be used for all adults and not just those aged above 45.

Without giving a specific deadline, the Centre has hinted that all adults might be vaccinated by December 2021. So far, 100.6 crore doses of Covaxin and Covishield have been ordered out of which 42.52 crore doses have been supplied. A total of 34,31,27,584 persons have been inoculated whereas 9,38,55,501 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.