Vaccine / Around 55% healthcare workers receive first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

New Delhi: Around 55% of the healthcare workers in India have received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine so far, the Union government said on Saturday. Meanwhile, nearly 5% of the frontline workers have received the first dose till date. The vaccination drive against COVID-19 for the healthcare workers started from January 16, while the frontline workers started receiving vaccine shots from February 2.

"As per the figures drawn till 6 pm on Saturday, 56,36,868 health care and frontline workers have been vaccinated. In which, 3,70,693 beneficiaries were the frontline while the remaining 52,66,175 were the health care workers," the Union Health Ministry said.

"The figure of healthcare workers are 54.7% of their total strength registered on CoWIN app while the share of the frontline workers inoculated till date stands at 4.5%," it specified.

Meanwhile, the ministry also informed that 13 states have covered more than 60% of their healthcare workers in the vaccination drive. These states include Bihar (76.6%) Madhya Pradesh (76.1%) Tripura (76%), Uttarakhand (71.5%), Mizoram (69.7%), Uttar Pradesh (69%), Kerala (68.1%), Odisha (67.6%), Rajasthan (67.3%), Himachal Pradesh (66.8%), Lakshadweep (64.5%), Andaman and Nicobar Islands (62.9%) and Chattisgarh (60.5%).

However, it also added that 12 states fared poorly in terms of vaccinating their healthcare workers, including New Delhi, which has only covered 37.1% of them. The least on the chart is Puducherry, which has vaccinated only 13.1% of its healthcare workers.

The ministry also informed that all states and Union territories have been directed to complete the administration of the first dose of vaccines to their healthcare workers by February 20 and conclude mop-up round (counselling) by February 25. It also directed them to push the beneficiaries' count beyond the daily target of 100 per session.

India is currently administering two vaccines - Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s indigenously developed Covaxin. The vaccine for healthcare workers and frontline workers will be free of cost, but they cannot choose which vaccine they can opt for.

It must be noted that in the lack of proper data on the efficacy data for Covaxin, which is still under clinical trial, many beneficiaries, especially frontline workers, have been reluctant in getting the vaccine, which has led to low turnout.