Coronavirus Vaccine India LIVE updates: Vaccines will work as ‘sanjeevani’ against COVID-19, says Harsh Vardhan

12:19 (IST)

Vaccination drive begins in West Bengal

The COVID-19 vaccination drive began in West Bengal on Saturday morning, with a doctor of a private hospital receiving the first shot, officials said.

Bipasha Seth is the first person who got inoculated in the state, the hospital authorities said.

“It’s a great day for humankind. I feel elated to get the first dose,” said Seth.

West Bengal’s Minister of State for Labour Nirmal Maji also received the Covishield vaccine at the Kolkata Medical College and Hospital, the officials said.

The vaccination programme started around 10.30 am at 212 session sites, including medical colleges, urban primary healthcare centres and a few private hospitals, they said.

PTI

12:08 (IST)

‘Entire country is proud of PM’s leadership’, says Harsh Vardhan

The health minister posted a tweet lauding Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his leadership in the battle against COVID-19.

The entire country is proud of the stellar leadership of Hon’ble PM Sh @NarendraModi Ji which has been instrumental to our famed battle against #COVID19

Congratulations India on the launch of world’s #LargestVaccineDrive

सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः।
सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः। pic.twitter.com/ePJwUuebty

— Dr Harsh Vardhan (@drharshvardhan) January 16, 2021

12:00 (IST)

Vaccination drive begins at 285 centres in Maharashtra

The COVID-19 vaccination drive began in Maharashtra on Saturday along with the rest of the country.

Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar, Dean, JJ Hospital, in Mumbai and Dr Padmaja Saraf were among the first beneficiaries to receive the vaccine shots in Mumbai and at Jalna civil hospital, respectively.

The inoculation drive is taking place at 285 centres in Maharashtra where 100 healthcare workers will be administered the shots in a day, and cover 28,500 workers, an official said.

The state has received 9.63 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine and 20,000 doses of Covaxin vaccine, which have been distributed to all the districts.

PTI

11:51 (IST)

Vaccine will work as ‘sanjeevani’ against COVID: Dr Harsh Vardhan

Following the launch of a nationwide vaccination drive,health minister DR Harsh Vardhan said the vaccine will work as ‘sanjeevani’ against COVID-19.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan shows a dose of COVAXIN developed by Bharat Biotech at AIIMS, Delhi as the first phase of vaccination begins across the country. pic.twitter.com/QQP3p6CNdV

— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2021

11:37 (IST)

UNICEF congratulates India on launch of vaccination drive

UNICEF congratulated the health ministry of India and health workers ahead of the launch ofthe world’s largest vaccination drive.

During the launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also highlights India’s efforts in helping other countries during the pandemic.

“India hardships, provided medicines and medical help to over 150 countries. Whether it is paracetamol, hydroxychloroquine or testing equipment, India has made every possible effort to save people of other countries,” he said.

Congratulations to @MoHFW_India, all the health workers and teams across India on the #LargestVaccineDrive.
All systems are in place, let’s come #TogetherAgainstCOVID19 pic.twitter.com/fhLf3ubxMF

— UNICEF India (@UNICEFIndia) January 16, 2021

11:16 (IST)

First dose of COVID-19 vaccine administered at AIIMS Delhi

The first dose of the coronavirus vaccine was administered to a sanitation worker at AIIMS, Delhi in the presence of Union minister Dr Harsh Vardhan.

Ahead of the vaccination drive’s launch, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “In the fight against corona, we’ve set an example for the world at many steps. When countries left their citizens, stuck in China amidst this pandemic, on their own, India stepped up and evacuated not only Indians but also people of other nations under Vande Bharat mission.”

11:02 (IST)

Reserving first vaccines for health workers a tribute to their efforts: PM

Remembering the efforts of healthcare workers, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said corona warriors remained away from their homes for days to attend to the call of duty. “By reserving the first vaccines for these people, the society is expressing its gratefulness. Our vaccination programme is driven by humanitarian concerns, those exposed to maximum risk get priority,” he further said.

Also lauding the country’s response to the outbreak, Modi said India was early to take guard against the pandemic and formed a committee to deal with it.

10:53 (IST)

Vaccines available in India cheaper, don’t need extremely low temperatures: Modi

Addressing the country ahead of the launch of the coronavirus vaccination drive, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said vaccines available in India are much cheaper than options in other countries, adding that they don’t need to be stored in extremely low temperatures.

Highlighting the massive scale of the inoculation drive to be launched today, Modi further said, “There are over 100 countries having less than 3 crore population and India is administering vaccination to 3 crore people in first phase itself. In the second phase, we have to take this number to 30 crores.”

10:46 (IST)

Modi urges people to take two doses, continue to wear masks

Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged people to remember that the COVID-19 vaccines are only effective when two doses are to be taken. “Experts have said that there should be a gap of one month between both vaccinations,” he said.

He also requested people to continue wearing masks, maintain social distancing even after getting a shot as immunity develops after the second dose.

10:39 (IST)

Narendra Modi lauds two Made In India vaccines

Stating that the work on other vaccines is progessing at a fast pace, Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded the development and launch of two Made In India vaccines in a short span of time.

10:34 (IST)

PM Modi congratulates nation on launch of vaccine

Speaking via videoconferencing, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated all countrymen on the launch of the world’s largest vaccination drive.

Two vaccines – SII’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin – will be administered in India from today onwards.

He also thanked the medical and research workers who worked endlessly to develop the vaccine.

10:21 (IST)

Number of doses sent to various states

• Goa got its first consignment of 23,000 doses of Covishield.
• West Bengal recieved 10 lakh doses of Covishield as part of the first consignment, of which 3.11 doses are for the neighbouring states.
• Mizoram got 18,500 Covishield vials in first phase.
• Bihar received 54,900 vials of Covishield vaccines.
• Tamil Nadu got 5,36,500 doses of Covishield and 20,000 doses of COVAXIN.
• Telangana received 3.64 lakh doses of Covishield as part of the first consignment.
• Uttar Pradesh has received around 1.6 lakh doses of Covishield.

10:19 (IST)

Number of doses sent to various states

• Puducherry has received 17,500 doses of Covishield vaccine, and it would be used in Puducherry and Karaikal regions, officials said.
• Jammu and Kashmir has received the first consignment of 1.46 lakh doses of Covishield.
• Tripura recieved the first consignment of 56,500 doses of Covishield vaccine.
• Madhya Pradesh has received 94,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine for the first phase.
• Assam has received 12,000 doses of COVAXIN and 2.40 lakh vials of Covishield for itself and Meghalaya.
• Karnataka has received 6.48 lakh doses of Covishield.
• Odisha received 20,000 vials of COVAXIN and 4.08 lakh doses of Covishield.

10:18 (IST)

Number of doses sent to various states

• Rajasthan has received 5,62,500 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including 20,000 doses of COVAXIN.
• Sikkim has so far got 1,250 vials of Covishield in the first batch.
• Haryana has so far received 2.41 lakh doses of Covishield in its first batch.
• Uttarakhand has got 1,13,000 doses of Covishield.
• Manipur has received 54,000 doses of Covishield vaccine.
• Kerala has received 4.33 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine.
• Gujarat has got 5.40 lakh doses of Covishield.

09:59 (IST)

Likely adverse effects of Covishield, Covaxin

Mild effects: For Covishield, likely mild adverse events following immunisation including injection site tenderness, injection site pain, headache, fatigue, myalgia, malaise, pyrexia, chills, arthralgia and nausea.

Rare effects: “Very rare events of demyelinating disorders” have been reported following vaccination with Covishield, “without the causal relationship establishment”. Conditions that damage myelin, a protective layer over the nerves, are called demyelinating disorders. 

Covishield should be given with “caution” to individuals with thrombocytopenia, a condition characterised by abnormally low levels of platelets.

Mild effects: Among mild adverse events following immunisation are injection site pain, headache, fatigue, fever; body ache, abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting, tremors, sweating, cold, cough and injection site swelling.

Rare effects: Bharat Biotech has said that chloroquine and corticosteroids, both used as repurposed drugs in COVID-19 clinical management, “may impair antibody response” likely to be triggered by the vaccine.

09:53 (IST)

BMC has registered 3.3 lakh medical, frontline workers, says civic body chief

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corproation (BMC) have registered 1,30,000 health workers and around 2,00,000 frontline workers through the CoWin app, the civic body chief Iqbal Chahal told LiveMint.

Mumbai has received 1,39,500 vaccine doses compared with the 1,30,000 requested for the first phase, which can be completed in 10 days, he added.

The BMC has formed 500 teams, each having two vaccinators, two support staff and one security guard. They will initially run the vaccination program at eight centers, where 12,000 people can be injected every day.

#WATCH | Health workers clap and cheer as COVID-19 vaccine reaches the vaccination centre at Cooper hospital in Mumbai, Maharashtra. pic.twitter.com/QOp2X15Cs8

— ANI (@ANI) January 16, 2021

09:33 (IST)

General guidelines pertaining to COVID-19 vaccine

The vaccination is only for people over the age of 18 years.

The vaccines are not interchangeable: the second dose will have to be of the same vaccine that was administered as the first dose.

The vaccine should be given with “caution” to persons with a history of any bleeding or coagulation disorder — platelet disorder, clotting factor deficiency, or coagulopathy.

Vaccinators have to store both vaccines at +2°C to +8°C; protect them from light; and discard the vaccine if found to be frozen.

09:24 (IST)

Pregnant women, people allergies should not take vaccine

Certain groups have been advised or directed not to take the vaccine, which is being launched today in India for healthcare and frontline workers. Here are the groups that should not take the vaccine:

• Pregnant women and lactating mothers
• People with a history of anaphylactic or allergic reactions
• People with an allergy to injectable therapies, pharma products, etc.

09:13 (IST)

Other vaccines in the works and how they work

Among the vaccines that are yet to come to India are the ones made by American pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and its German-based partner BioNTech and another by American company Moderna which are being used in US, UK, and other countries.

Both use messenger ribonucleic acid or mRNA, a sort of genetic software that asks cells to make a piece of the coronavirus spike protein, putting them on guard against infections.

Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine, which has been cleared by eight countries so far, is undergoing last-stage trials in India after completing a Phase 2 study. An adenoviral vector vaccine like Covishield, it is expected to soon apply for emergency-use approval in the country.

American multinational Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine arm Janssen Pharmaceuticals has also said it is on track to roll out its single-shot coronavirus vaccine in March and expects to have clear data on how effective it is by the end of this month or early February.

09:10 (IST)

Covaxin: How the vaccine works

Developed by Bharat Biotech and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Covaxin is the second vaccine to have been approved by the government.

It is an inactivated vaccine, one of the oldest methods for vaccination, which uses whole, inactivated viruses that are injected to trigger an immune response. These whole batches of coronavirus must be grown, “killed” using a chemical or heat and then made into a vaccine, making it a longer process.

There have been some concerns about Covaxin because its efficacy has not yet been proven in Phase 3 clinical trials, unlike Covishield and vaccines by Pfizer and Moderna. While the first two phases of vaccine trials generally find out if they are safe, the third phase usually finds out if the vaccine is effective or not.

09:07 (IST)

Covishield: How the vaccine works

Developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, Covishield has emerged as the most promising vaccine for countries like India where cost and logistics are a significant consideration.

Covishield is a vector vaccine which are slower but cheaper and can be kept stable for six months at standard refrigerator temperatures. The vaccine uses a weakened version of a common cold virus called an adenovirus that affects chimpanzees but doesn’t infect humans. It attaches to cells and injects DNA that tells them to make the coronavirus spike protein – the structures on the surface of the coronavirus, giving it that studded appearance.

This catches the attention of the immune system which recognizes it as foreign and builds up a defence to attack the real coronavirus when an actual infection occurs.

08:56 (IST)

Centre to fund doses for first round of inoculation

The campaign will be held from 9 am to 5 pm on all days but those earmarked for routine immunisation programme.

The funding of the first two groups of those getting vaccinated — the healthcare and frontline workers — will be done entirely by the Centre. The drive will be held for these groups at various public health care facilities both in rural and urban India.

Healthcare will include doctors, nurses, technicians, lab workers, including ICDS workers. Frontline workers will be personnel from state and central police department, armed forces, home guard, prison staff, disaster management volunteers and civil defence organisation, municipal workers and revenue officials engaged in COVID-19 containment, surveillance and associated activities.

08:51 (IST)

On first day, 16,000 to be vaccinated in Gujarat, 6,500 in Assam

Medical superintendents of government hospitals at Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar will be among the first to get the shots in Gujarat, where over 16,000 health workers will be vaccinated during the day, officials said.

In Assam, an estimated 6,500 people of the 1.9 lakh health workers will be vaccinated on the first day. Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal will inaugurate the drive at Assam Medical College Hospital, Dibrugarh and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at Gauhati Medical College and Hospital. Former vice chancellor of Srimanta Sankardeva University of Health Sciences Dr Umesh Chandra Sarma will be the first to receive the initial dose in the state.

08:48 (IST)

Vaccination drive to be conducted at 81 sites in Delhi

In Delhi, the drive will kick off from the state-run LNJP Hospital with a simple ceremony in the presence of Chief Minister Kejriwal and Health Minister Satyendar Jain.

A trio of a doctor, nurse and a sanitation worker will receive COVID-19 vaccine shots in the presence of Kejriwal at LNJP Hospital, sources told PTI.

The 81 sites named in the national capital for administering the jabs include six Central government facilities like AIIMS, Safdarjung Hospital, RML Hospital and Kalawati Saran Children Hospital and two ESI hospitals.

08:30 (IST)

Co-WIN app will be used to drive vaccination programme 

An online digital platform Co-WIN, developed by the health ministry, will be used to drive the vaccination programme.

A dedicated 24×7 call centre — 1075 — has also been set up for addressing queries related to the COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine roll-out and the Co-WIN software.

08:28 (IST)

India will enter ‘decisive phase with world’s vaccination programme: Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the country would enter a “decisive phase” in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

“Tomorrow, 16 January, India begins the pan-India rollout of COVID-19 vaccination drive. The launch will take place at 10:30 am tomorrow morning,” he tweeted.

His office had said this will be the world’s largest vaccination programme covering the entire length and breadth of the country and all preparations are in place to initiate it on the principles of ‘Jan Bhagidari’.

Tomorrow, 16th January, India begins the pan-India rollout of COVID-19 Vaccination drive.

The launch will take place at 10:30 AM tomorrow morning. https://t.co/zopwtXPmZO

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 15, 2021

08:26 (IST)

Inoculation drive ‘beginning of end’ of pandemic: Harsh Vardhan

On the eve of the roll-out, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviewed the preparations and visited the dedicated COVID-19 control room set up at the Nirman Bhawan premises of the health ministry.

The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups. Healthcare workers, both in government and private sectors including ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers, will receive the vaccine during this phase, the health ministry said in a statement. Vardhan said India’s exercise to vaccinate its population against COVID-19 shall be the largest immunisation drive of the world.

He reiterated that both the indigenously manufactured vaccines—Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech—have proven safety and immunogenicity records and are the most important tools to contain the pandemic.

Speaking at a separate programme, Vardhan said, “Tomorrow is an important day… it is the last phase of the battle against coronavirus. I say, this is probably the beginning of the end of COVID now which is going to start tomorrow.” He, however, cautioned that even if the vaccination drive is on, there should not be lowering of guard and people must follow COVID-19-appropriate behaviour.

08:24 (IST)

Over 3 lakh healthcare workers to get vaccinated today

India is all set to roll out the world’s biggest vaccination programme on Saturday, with over 3 lakh healthcare workers to be inoculated on the first day of the much-anticipated drive, which the government said is “probably the beginning of the end” of COVID-19.

A total of 3,006 session sites across all states and Union territories will be virtually connected during the launch at 10.30 am by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site.