The second dose of Covid-19 vaccines will be administered to healthcare workers from February 13 while a total of 45,93,427 doses of vaccines have been administered in the country.
Addressing a press conference, NITI Aayog member Dr. VK Paul on Thursday said, "The first phase of the nationwide vaccination drive against COVID-19 had begun on January 16. Healthcare workers have only been given the first dose, so far. The second dose of vaccine will be administered to healthcare workers from 13th February."
During the press conference, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that 1,239 private and 5,912 public hospitals were being utilized as vaccination session sites. Bhushan also said that the country's Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) system was robust and was strengthened for the purpose of Covid-19 vaccinations. He also noted that 0.18% of vaccinations were followed by adverse events, ANI reported.
"India has become the fastest nation to reach 4 million COVID -19 vaccinations. It took only 18 days to administer the vaccines" he added.
However, Union Health Ministry said that there were 11 states and union territories, including Tamil Nadu, Assam, and Jammu & Kashmir, which have inoculated 30% or fewer of their healthcare workers.
Pegged as the world's largest vaccination programme, the first phase of the country's vaccination drive began on January 16, after the government approved Serum Institute of India (SII) and Bharat Biotech's coronavirus vaccines, with healthcare workers and front line workers being the first in line to be inoculated.
There are 19 deaths of vaccinated people, it yet to ascertain whether vaccination was the cause of the death or not.
Moreover, India recorded 12,899 new Covid-19 cases which took the country's overall tally to 10,790,183. 107 new fatalities pushed the death toll to 154,703. As per the Union Health Ministry, the country's cumulative positivity rate stood at 5.42% and was on the decline while the positivity rate recorded for the previous week was 1.82%.
