JOIN USCentre asks to step up vaccination drive as 37 lakh get inoculated
The Centre on Saturday asked states to step up the vaccination drive against Covid-19 as more than 37 lakh health workers received vaccine shots across the country.
As many as 2.06 lakh health workers received vaccine shots on Saturday, according to provisional numbers issued by the Health Ministry at 7:00 pm. According to the ministry, 71 adverse event post immunisation (AEFI) cases were reported.
Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan noted India was the fastest country to carry out a vaccination drive, administering the vaccine to 37 lakh persons within a fortnight.
“Several other countries which have had a head start, some as much as 40-50 days, have taken longer to reach these targets,” he said during a review meeting with health secretaries of states and union territories.
Uttar Pradesh has vaccinated 4.63 lakh health workers, the highest in the country, followed by Rajasthan (3.26 lakh) and Karnataka (3.15 lakh) so far.
At the review meeting, the Health Secretary said there was scope for improvement in the number of average vaccination per session. He also asked states and union territories to organise multiple simultaneous vaccination sessions/day in the health facility wherever possible.
“This would substantially boost the number of vaccinations per day,” Bhushan said.
The Centre aims to complete the first phase of the vaccination drive by mid-February and has planned the rollout of the vaccine for frontline workers from next week.
The Health Secretary pointed out that the vaccine was available in sufficient quantity and technical glitches on Co-WIN have now been resolved.
Meanwhile, India’s total active caseload of Covid-19 case has dropped to 1,69,824 on Saturday. The active caseload now consists of just 1.58 per cent of India’s total positive cases, the health ministry said.
With a consistent rise in cumulative recoveries, India’s recovery rate has reached nearly 97 per cent — one of the highest globally.
More than 1.04 crore people have recovered from the viral infection.