World’s largest vaccination drive launched, Modi congratulates citizens and scientists, urges people to follow Covid-appropriate behaviour and don’t forget to take 2nd dose of vaccine on time
India launched its mammoth vaccination drive on Saturday to bring the pandemic under control with two locally-produced vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — with nearly two lakh out of tragetted three lakh taking shot against the pathogen on the first day on Saturday.
Launching the “world’s largest vaccination drive” against Covid-19, Modi congratulated citizens and scientists for the feat but cautioned people against being careless and not taking precautions after taking the first dose of the vaccination.
The Prime Minister also alerted people against the rumours spread about the vaccines. He said Indian vaccines are the “cheapest and the best in the world”.
Modi, in a televised address before the vaccine rollout, said there are several nations whose entire population is less than 3 crore, but India will be vaccinating as many people in just the first phase. He saluted scientists for developing the vaccines in such a short span of time.
The PM cautioned people to ensure that they take both the doses at one month’s gap and show patience as the country begins to give the antidote to its huge population.
“Don’t make the mistake of taking one dose and then forgetting about dose two and don’t forget coronavirus appropriate behaviour after getting the dose. The patience with which you fought coronavirus, show the same patience during vaccination now,” Modi said.
As the PM kicked off the vaccine rollout with a click of a button, a video message played the Sanskrit chant — sarve bhavantu sukhinah, sarve santu niramaya (All be happy, all be free of illness).
The Covid-19 vaccination drive was successfully conducted on the first day, Additional Secretary in the Union health Ministry Manohar Agnani said during a press briefing here organised late evening after the drive was wrapped up for the day. Of three lakh planned to be inoculated, around 1,91,181 beneficiaries were given the shot of Covid-19 vaccines on first day involving 16,755 personnel at 3,351 vaccination sessions.
Agnani said that Covid-19 vaccines Covaxin and Covishield (developed by Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India (SII) respectively) were given at 3,351 session across the country. He refused to take any questions from the reporters.
“Since it was the first day of vaccination, a few issues came up - delay in uploading beneficiary list at some session sites and healthcare workers vaccinated though not scheduled for today’s session; Resolutions provided for both the issues,” said Agnani. Earlier in the day, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan, who was at Delhi’s AIIMS hailed the vaccines as “sanjeevani” (a miracle cure) in the fight against the novel coronavirus. Sanitation worker Manish Kumar became the first recipient of the vaccination drive at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), according to the Ministry.
“The vaccines have been presented before the country like ‘sanjeevani’ in the fight against Covid-19. The fight was gradually heading towards victory... but now it seems almost definite that the step towards victory will be taken quickly,” Dr Vardhan told reporters at a press briefing.
“We received success to an extent in our fight against Covid-19 in the past year. Data from the last three or four months (shows) we’re gradually heading to victory against Covid,” he added.
Dr Vardhan also praised the Indian scientific community for helping to develop, test and mass manufacture at least two viable coronavirus vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin - both of which have been approved for emergency use and were rolled out at different locations across the country.
“To further speed this up, our scientists developed two indigenous vaccines with the support of our scientists, doctors, researchers, vaccine manufacturing industry and citizens of India, who volunteered for clinical trials to make research of scientists successful,” he said.
According to the data shared by the Ministry, the 11 States and Union Territories where both Covishield and Covaxin were administered were Assam (65 sessions), Bihar (301), Delhi (81), Haryana (77), Karnataka (242), Maharashtra (285), Odisha (161), Rajasthan (167) Tamil Nadu (160), Telangana (14) and Uttar Pradesh (317).
The 1,65,714 beneficiaries included 78 from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 76 from Ladakh, 43 from Daman and Diu, 64 from Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 21 from Lakshadweep, 195 from Chandigarh and 373 from Goa.
Besides, 16,963 were vaccinated in Andhra Pradesh, 16,401 in Bihar, 15,727 in Maharashtra, 4,985 in Chhattisgarh, 8,557 in Gujarat, 743 in Arunachal Pradesh, 2,721 in Assam, 3,403 in Delhi, 4,656 in Haryana, 1,408 in Himachal Pradesh and 1,954 in Jammu & Kashmir.
More than one crore cases and 1.5 lakh fatalities later, India took its first steps out of the pandemic with shots of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines being administered at medical centres across the country.
Of the first day beneficiaries, 2,897 were in Jharkhand, 12,637 in Karnataka, 7,206 in Kerala, 6,739 in Madhya Pradesh, 510 in Manipur, 509 in Meghalaya, 314 in Mizoram, 499 in Nagaland, 8,675 in Odisha, 206 in Puducherry, 1,200 in Punjab, 9,279 in Rajasthan, 120 in Sikkim, 2,728 in Tamil Nadu, 3,600 in Telangana, 266 in Tripura, 15,975 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,226 in Uttarakhand and 9,578 in West Bengal.
The anti-Covid jab drive in the country has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups. Around three crore healthcare workers including doctors, both in Government and private sectors including ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers, will receive the vaccine during the first phase while around 27 crore will be covered later on. This group will include those above 50 years of age and below 50 years with co-morbidities.
The Prime Minister said the vaccines approved by the Government were much cheaper than alternatives being used in the west, referring to the shots developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. He said those vaccines would cost around Rs 5,000 to vaccinate a person and would need to be stored at temperatures around -70 degree Celsius, making the logistics tougher.
“Indian vaccines are cheapest and the best in the world,” he said, adding that the administration was also much simpler as they can be stored easily.
He urged people not to fall prey to rumours and myths regarding the vaccines. “The DGCI gave approval after they were satisfied with the data of two vaccines. So stay away from rumours. Our vaccine developers have a global credibility. Life-saving vaccines given to 60 per cent children globally are made in India,” he said.
He said that India’s vaccination drive is based on principles of humanity and that those who needed the vaccine the most would get it first.
“Those who are most at risk will get it first - doctors, nurses, paramedics - they deserve it most on priority,” Modi said, as India began the exercise of vaccinating 30 million health care and frontline workers.
On Day 1, around 300,000 healthcare workers will be given the first dose of the vaccine.
Modi turned emotional as he talked about the struggles of families torn apart due to Covid. “Mothers could not be with their ailing children...Kids could not give a traditional farewell to their parents who died in the pandemic.”
All this while, he said that there was someone who was giving us hope.”Nirasha ke usi vatavaran mein koi asha ka sanchar kar raha tha...Humein bachane ke liye apne prano ko sankat mein daal raha tha.”
He said that health and frontline workers stayed away from their families for months in discharging their duties and several did not make it. “Neither science or society was prepared for a situation like this...No one had imagined a challenge like Covid.”
