India's vaccination drive begins, in the arm for 2 lakh

Nearly two lakh healthcare workers on Saturday received the first dose of a Covid-19 vaccine as India launched the world's biggest vaccination drive aiming to inoculate 1 crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers in the first phase.

In 11 states, including Karnataka, two types of vaccines – Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute and Covaxin, made by Bharat Biotech – were used while other states and Union Territories received only Covishield.

Vaccination was carried out at 3,352 sites by 16,755 vaccinators who gave shots to 1,91,181 beneficiaries.

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"Vaccination campaigns of this scale are unprecedented in the history of mankind. In the first round itself, three crore people, which is more than the population of at least 100 countries of the world, are being vaccinated," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, launching the nation-wide inoculation drive.

Recalling last year’s "dark days when the pandemic tore apart families", the Prime Minister paid tributes to doctors, nurses, healthcare staff and other frontline workers.

"They gave precedence to their duty for humanity over their personal interest. Some of them didn’t even return home as they lost their lives in the fight against the virus. The frontline warriors brought hope in an environment of despondency and fear. By vaccinating them first, the country is acknowledging their contribution with gratitude," Modi said.

India began its Covid-19 vaccination on a day the number of fresh cases dropped to 15,158 and the toll in the last 24 hours fell to less than 200. The cumulative death toll stands at 1,52,093 of which 175 were added in the last 24 hours. The number of active cases stands at 2.11 lakh.

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In Delhi, Manish Kumar, a sanitation worker at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences was the first to receive the vaccine in the presence of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

AIIMS director Randeep Guleria and NITI Aayog member Vinod Paul were among those who received the vaccine (Covaxin) at the AIIMS but Vardhan said he would wait for his turn when the window to vaccinate the next 27 crore people, mostly above 50 years, would open.

The Health Minister reviewed the day-long vaccination programme with state ministers in the evening following which Manohar Agnani, an Additional Secretary in the Health Ministry told reporters that there was no case of post-vaccination hospitalisation.

However, according to the West Bengal Health Department sources, a nurse of the BC Roy Child Hospital lost consciousness after taking the vaccine and was admitted to the state-run NRS Medical College. But it was not clear whether her condition was due to the vaccine.

Read: Health workers get vaccinated: From facing harassment to being among the first to get Covid-19 shot

There were also four AEFI (adverse effect following immunisation) cases in Delhi – two in NDMC Charak Hospital and two in Northern Railway Central Hospital and one of the four was referred to the dedicated AEFI Centre. But none were hospitalised.

Agnani admitted experiencing teething trouble with the Co-WIN platform on the first day as there were delays in uploading the beneficiary list at some of the sites. Also at some of the sites, healthcare workers who were not supposed to receive the shot on Tuesday, received it. Both problems were resolved, he said.

Vardhan told the Health Ministers that Saturday is a day of tremendous relief in the past year as the vaccines came like 'Sanjeevani' (of Ramayana) in the fight against Covid-19. "The fight was gradually heading towards victory and now it seems almost definite that the step towards victory will be taken quickly," he added.