Only 7.86L healthcare staff vaccinated till 5th day of jab drive
The anti-Covid-19 vaccination drive has failed to pick up the expected pace even after the fifth day when just 1,12,007 healthcare workers received the jab on Wednesday.
A total 7.86 lakh healthcare workers have been vaccinated since January 16 when the anti-Covid jab programme was launched with much fanfare in the country. The Government fears that with such a pace, it will take years to inoculate an estimated 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers that it plans to cover in the first phase.
“On Wednesday, 1,12,007 beneficiaries were vaccinated till 6 pm across 20 States and Union Territories,” said Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani at a press conference here. He, however, said that the final report for the day will be complied by late in the night.
Ten cases of adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) — four in Delhi, two in Karnataka, and one each in Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and West Bengal —have required hospitalisation so far, Agnani said.
“Three people were hospitalised after vaccination in Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan. All of them have been discharged. Four beneficiaries in Delhi were hospitalised after vaccination. Among them, one is under observation at Rajiv Gandhi Hospital, while three have been discharged. In Karnataka, one was discharged and one is under observation and in West Bengal, one is under observation,” said the official.
“There has been no case of serious/severe adverse event attributable to Covid-19 vaccination till date,” the official added.
The Ministry also said that the deaths reported after vaccination have not been found to be related to vaccination. “The post-mortem of the Moradabad case confirms cardio-pulmonary disease, while the Bellary case autopsy suggests myocardial infarction. The Shivamoga case too is a suspected case of myocardial infarction. The Telangana case is under probe,” the Ministry said.
With vaccine hesitancy and technical glitches hampering the pace as reported from various States, in a new letter sent to the States and Union Territories on Tuesday, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the Government has tweaked the app and added the “features of session scheduling, beneficiary allocation and allocation of additional beneficiaries at the session site”.
Bhushan said, “The feature of ‘Allot Beneficiary’ in an ongoing session has been added in the vaccinator module and is live.” He added, “The feature has been added to facilitate maximum utilisation of staff deployed at the session sites so that they can cater to optimal number of beneficiaries per session.”
Bhushan clarified that “such additional beneficiaries whose name exist in the database, can be added to the session”. Names of the beneficiary are searchable through their mobile number.
The latest tweak in the app is expected to increase the turnout at the Government hospitals who are struggling to reach even the half-way mark of their vaccination target.
India on January 16 rolled out the massive coronavirus vaccination drive under which two domestically manufactured vaccines -- Covishield and Covaxin --are being administered to frontline health workers across the country. While Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield is being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, the Covaxin is being produced by Bharat Biotech.
