PM Modi hails COVID warriors' 'monumental effort' in ensuring vaccines reaching last mile

As the world's largest and fastest vaccination drive is currently ongoing in India, PM Modi on Saturday lauded the COVID-19 warriors for presenting an 'example of monumental effort' after Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya shared a video on social media. Health Minister Mandaviya on Saturday shared a video on his Twitter handle in which two female health workers carrying vaccines were seen crossing a narrow road in a mountain where a slip could have pushed them into the stream of water.

Lauding the health workers, Mandaviya had shared the video and stated that India's vaccination drive is progressing successfully today due to the hard work of these health workers. Following that, PM Modi retweeted the video and wrote that this is one among the various examples of monumental efforts by the 'stakeholder to ensure our fellow citizens get vaccinated'. Furthermore, PM Modi also lauded the efforts of each and every person who has India's vaccination drive a success.  

Meanwhile, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday warned that COVID-19 containment could derail if festivals are not celebrated following the pandemic protocols and strongly urged 19 states to escalate the vaccination speed so that India can achieve administering 100 crore vaccine doses soon. Mandaviya cited results of experiments that pegged the number of first dose recipients not developing severe COVID-19 to be 96% and further pointed out that the number increases to nearly 98% for people who have taken both doses of the vaccine.

India administers over 93 crore total doses

The Union Health Minister on Friday stated that the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in the country crossed 93.90 crore. As for doses administered on Friday, the count till 7 pm was 71,75,744, the ministry said, adding this tally is expected to increase with the compilation of the final reports for the day by late-night reported PTI. The vaccination exercise as a tool to protect the most vulnerable population groups in the country from COVID-19 continues to be regularly reviewed and monitored at the highest level, the ministry underlined.

The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on January 16 with healthcare workers (HCWs) getting inoculated in the first phase. The vaccination of frontline workers (FLWs) started from February 2. The next phase of COVID-19 vaccination commenced from March 1 for people over 60 years of age and those aged 45 and above with specified co-morbid conditions. The country launched vaccination for all people aged more than 45 years from April 1. The government then decided to expand its vaccination drive by allowing everyone above 18 to be vaccinated from May 1. 

(Inputs: PTI)

(Image: PTI/mansukhmandviya/Twitter)