55% of India’s healthcare workers got Covid-19 vaccine jabs: Centre

INDIA HEALTH VIRUS VACCINE
A health worker inoculates a private medical staff member with a novel coronavirus vaccine at a hospital in Hyderabad. (Photo: AFP)

According to the Ministry of Health, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan reviewed the status and progress of the novel coronavirus vaccination with officials of states and union territories via video conferencing, on Saturday.

“They were urged to exponentially increase the pace of vaccination. Beneficiaries of inaugural vaccination day to start getting a second dose on February 13,” the ministry said.

India has reported 11,713 fresh Covid-19 cases and 95 deaths in the past 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry said on Saturday morning. With 11,000 fresh coronavirus cases, the caseload in the country is now at 1,08,14,304.

“A total number of 14,488 discharges has been reported in the past 24 hours,” said the ministry, adding that the total number of discharges is now at 1,05,10,796. The death toll due to the coronavirus infection has climbed to 1,54,918, and the active cases stand at 1,48,590.

Meanwhile, Manohar Agnani, additional secretary, the Union health ministry, said, “As of 6 pm on Saturday, the total number of persons being vaccinated is 56,36,868, out of which 52,66,175 are healthcare workers. It is 54.7 per cent of the total cohort of healthcare workers who are registered on CoWIN.”

“Since we started vaccinating frontline workers from February 2, a total of 3,70,693 frontline workers have also been covered — which is 4.5 per cent of the current database of frontline workers,” Agnani added.

According to Agnani, top 13 states that have vaccinated more than 60 per cent of healthcare workers are Uttarakhand 71.5 per cent, Bihar 76.6 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 76.1 per cent, Tripura 76 per cent, Mizoram 69.7 per cent, Uttar Pradesh 69 per cent, Kerala 68.1 per cent, Odisha 67.6 per cent, Rajasthan 67.3 per cent, Himachal Pradesh 66.8 per cent, Lakshadweep 64.5 per cent, Andaman 62.9 per cent, and Chhattisgarh 60.5 per cent.

According to the ministry, 12 states have vaccinated less than 40 per cent of their total health workers. Those states are Assam 39.9 per cent, Delhi 37.1 per cent, Punjab 33.7 per cent, Jammu and Kashmir 33.6 per cent, Dadra and Nagar Haveli 31.9 per cent, Ladakh 31.7 per cent, Tamil Nadu 28 per cent, Chandigarh 27.7 per cent, Meghalaya 21.7 per cent, Nagaland 21 per cent, Manipur 17.4 per cent and Puducherry 13.6 per cent.

“The total number of Covid-19 hospitalisations till date has reached 28. Out of these, 19 persons have been discharged after treatment, and nine have died. There have been no events of hospitalisation in the past 24 hours,” Agnani said.

Total 22 deaths have been reported so far. Out of these, nine deaths were reported in hospitals, and 13 outside hospitals. “No fresh deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours,” the additional secretary said.

So far, none of the deaths have been causally linked with the Covid-19 vaccination, according to Agnani.

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