Picture : Twitter / ANI
After two days of successful start of the India’s historic largest vaccination drive, approximately 64% of the 3,16,375 beneficiaries were vaccinated since Saturday.
India intends to vaccinate 300 million people in the first phase of the drive, turning its attention to people above 50 years of age and those below 50 with comorbidities, after administering the shot to health-care and front-line workers.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, ” The Centre will bear the entire cost of vaccinating 30 million health care and frontline workers — employees across government departments, the police and civic bodies — at the start of the world’s biggest immunisation drive against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19).” According to officials who did not want to be named, the cost for this phase could be around ₹10,000 crore. The PM also underlined that India the made-in-India vaccines would go to neighbours as well as other friendly countries, adding: “We have to be more responsible.”
Though, the start saw a mixed reaction to the vaccination drive, the numbers seems to be slowly picking up. The all-India number added to 2,24,301 beneficiaries, a data officially shared by the Health Ministry till Sunday. According the the additional health secretary Manohar Agnani,”India has registered the highest day one vaccination number in the world- higher than the US, UK or France on day one”. Till date, only a handful of cases have complained of mild reactions to the vaccination, nothing major has occurred. a few healthcare workers had apprehensions about the efficacy of the vaccine, which was overcome once AIIMS Director, Dr Randeep Guleria and Dr V K Paul of Niti Aayog took the Covaxin at AIIMS.
With such senior people showing the confidence in our vaccines, it leaves a little room for the rumours being spread by certain sections to keep people away for long frome taking the vaccine. As the vaccination drive spreads to other states and UT’s, government is hopeful the number of the beneficiaries too would rise if we collectively want to beat the virus to start living life normally once again!
