India / India starts giving 2nd vaccine dose; over 7k got 2nd dose on day 1

New Delhi: Beneficiaries of the nationwide COVID-19 immunisation drive began receiving second dose with over 7,000 healthcare workers getting the jab on Saturday, 28 days after their first shot on the inaugural day.

The Union Health Ministry said the cumulative number of healthcare and frontline workers vaccinated against coronavirus in the country surpassed 80 lakh on Saturday.

It said 80,52,454 beneficiaries have been vaccinated through 1,69,215 sessions, according to the provisional report till Saturday 6 pm. These include 59,35,275 healthcare workers and 21,17,179 frontline workers.

"The second dose of COVID-19 vaccination started from today for those beneficiaries who have completed 28 days after receipt of the first dose. The approval provided by DCGI accords a window of four to six weeks for the second dose. As many as 7,668 healthcare workers received the second dose of vaccine today," the ministry said.

On Saturday, 84,807 beneficiaries were inoculated till 6 pm, the 29th day of nationwide COVID-19 vaccination as per provisional data. As many as 4,434 sessions were organised on Saturday till 6 pm, the ministry said.

Thirty-four states and Union Territories conducted COVID-19 vaccinations on Saturday.

Twelve states UTs have vaccinated more than 70 per cent of the registered heathcare workers. These are -- Bihar, Lakshadweep, Tripura, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Mizoram and Sikkim.

On the other hand, seven states and UTs have reported less than 40 per cent coverage of registered healthcare workers. These are Meghalaya, Punjab, Manipur, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Nagaland and Puducherry.

Ten states that recorded the highest number of vaccinations are Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Bihar, Uttarakhand, Tripura and Delhi.

Total 34 people have so far been hospitalised after being administered COVID-19 vaccine. It comprises 0.0004 per cent of the total vaccinations.

Of these cases of hospitalization, 21 were discharged after treatment, while 11 died and two are under treatment, the health ministry said.

In the last 24 hours, no person has been hospitalized, it stated.

"Total 27 deaths have been recorded till date. These comprise 0.0003 per cent of the total vaccinations. Of these, 11 died in the hospital while 16 fatalities were recorded outside the hospital.

"No case of serious/severe adverse effect after immunisation or death is attributable to vaccination till date," the health ministry said.

In the last 24 hours, three new deaths have been reported.

A 38-year-old person of Harda in Madhya Pradesh died due to myocardial infarction nine days after vaccination. Another is a 35-year-old resident of Panipat in Haryana who suffered from pneumonia with acute respiratory distress syndrome and died eight days after vaccination.

A 58-year-old resident of Dausa in Rajasthan, who had received vaccine, collapsed on duty and was brought dead to a hospital. Post-mortem details of all are awaited.

Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviewed in detail the status and progress of COVID-19 vaccination drive and urged all states and Union Territories to adhere to timelines for covering all healthcare and frontline workers with first dose of vaccines and schedule their mop-up rounds.

The standard operating procedure for second dose scheduling on Co-WIN software have been shared with states and Union Territories.

In a letter to all states and UTs, Bhushan pointed out that according to the rapid assessment system only 88.9 per cent beneficiaries have indicated that they were provided information regarding adverse event following immunization (AEFI) at the session site.

The states and UTs have been advised to ensure that all vaccination officers are trained and informed regarding AEFI and they should provide such information to all beneficiaries.

In order to strengthen surveillance following COVID-19 vaccination, the Union health secretary has also urged states and UTs to ensure that AEFI committees at the state and district levels meet regularly to oversee the overall performance of AEFI Surveillance System.