COVID-19: 1,91,181 beneficiaries vaccinated on day 1 of nationwide vaccination drive

A total of 1,91,181 beneficiaries were vaccinated for COVID-19 on day one of the massive nationwide vaccination drive on Saturday, said the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Till 5:30 pm today, at least 1,65,714 healthcare beneficiaries received COVID-19 jab across India, according to the Union Health Ministry. There was no post adverse event reported after the vaccination was administered to the people.

Addressing the media, Manohar Agn, Additional Secretary of Union Health Ministry said the Serum Institute of India (SII) produced COVISHIELD was supplied to all States and Union Territories (UT). Bharat Biotech's COVAXIN was supplied to 12 States.

"Total 3,351 sessions were held across the country with both the vaccines, said Health Ministry on COVID19 vaccine roll-out," he added.

Since it was the first day of vaccination, a few issues came up like delay in uploading beneficiary list at some session sites and healthcare workers vaccinated though not scheduled for today's session. Resolutions were provided for both the issues, the Union Health Ministry stated.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched India's vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus via video conferencing.

Billed as the world's largest vaccination program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first inoculate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase.

The drugs regulatory body of India has currently approved two vaccines. Pune-based Serum Institute of India has developed the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University while the Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.

( With inputs from ANI )