The cumulative number of healthcare workers vaccinated against COVID-19 has touched 9,99,065 (till 6 p.m. on Thursday) through a total of 18,159 sessions, according to a provisional report. A total of 4,041 sessions were held till 6 p.m. on Thursday, and 1,92,581 beneficiaries were vaccinated on the sixth day of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination, said the Health Ministry on Thursday, adding that there are no cases of serious/severe AEFI (adverse event following immunisation) attributable to vaccination till date.
The Ministry said that 187 minor AEFIs have been reported till 6 p.m. on the sixth day of the vaccination drive.
It added that enhancement in Co-WIN software has been introduced to cater to the creation of more session sites, more sessions per site, and change in site location, which is now allowed.
“The enhanced version also allows planning and scheduling the sessions for entire week and works for the enhanced safety of the beneficiaries, tagging of contraindications. These new features are being enabled in vaccinator module,” noted the Ministry.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, on Thursday, unveiled an IEC (information, education, communication) campaign with a series of posters to address the issue of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, stating that India is one of the few countries to halt the march of COVID-19 and simultaneously develop a vaccine for COVID-19.
“Today, the country is seeing a steady decline in active cases,” said the Minister.
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Explaining the role of the vaccination in eradicating diseases, he noted, “The elimination of polio and smallpox was made possible by large-scale immunisation. Once immunised, not only is that person not capable of catching the disease, he/she is also unable to transmit the disease to others, thus passing on the social benefit to the larger society he/she interacts with. This was also the logic of undertaking mass immunisation of women and children against the 12 diseases under Mission Indradhanush. Vaccination against COVID-19 will similarly create persons incapable of transmitting the disease and eradicate the disease altogether in some time.”
The Minister urged everyone to counter the vested campaigns of untruths and misinformaiton. “Let us put a stop to these falsehoods,” he said.
“A handful of vested political interests who are interested in spreading rumours and encouraging vaccine hesitancy among those vulnerable to such propaganda in the population. The paradox is that countries across the globe are asking us for access to the vaccines, while a section of our own is misinformed,” he added.
Meanwhile, India’s active COVID-19 caseload has contracted to 1.92 lakh currently, with 17 States/UTs registering case per million population lower that the national average. India’s cases per million population stand at 7,689, said information released by the Health Ministry. It added that the total number of persons found positive with the U.K. strain of the virus stands at 145 on Thursday.
The Health Ministry said that five States — Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and West Bengal account for 73% of the total active cases in the country. A total of 19,965 cases have recovered in the last 24 hours. The total recovered cases stand at 10,265,706, which translates to a recovery rate of 96.75%. “Kerala has reported the maximum number of single day recoveries with 7,364 recoveries, and Maharashtra follows with 4,589 new recoveries,” said the Ministry.
