On day two of the nationwide vaccination drive on Sunday, the Union government said a total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries were inoculated with Covid-19 vaccine so far, out of which only 447 adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were reported.
Speaking to the media, Health Ministry’s Additional Secretary Manohar Agnani said out of the 447 adverse events following immunisation, only three required hospitalisation.
“Today being Sunday, only six states conducted vaccination drive and in 553 sessions a total of 17,072 beneficiaries were vaccinated,” he said.
Agnani added: “The six states where the vaccination drive was carried out on Sunday are Andhra Pradesh, Arunachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur and Tamilnadu.”
He said a total of 2,24,301 beneficiaries have been vaccinated till January 17 as per provisional reports, adding that 2,07,229 of them received the jabs on day one of the drive.
Stating that a meeting was held with all states and union territories on Sunday to review the progress of the drive, identify bottlenecks and plan corrective actions, he added: “A total of 447 AEFI have been reported on 16 and 17 January, out of which only three required hospitalisation. Most of the AEFI reported so far are minor like fever, headache, nausea.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world’s largest inoculation drive against Covid-19 on Saturday. While the vaccination is gaining momentum, apprehensions are being raised from various quarters. It is the duty of the government to clear the doubts.
