According to the preliminary data from several states, which are subjected to further correction, collected by the Centre till Sunday evening showed that approximately 64% of 3,16,375 planned recipients were vaccinated on the 1st two days of the vaccination drive against COVID-19.

On Saturday, Bengal’s footfall was 75.9% that was above the national average. Tamil Nadu, Tripura Punjab and Puducherry reported low turnout of recipients in the range of 22-34%. Other states reported above 50% attendance on 16th and 17th January, whereas Assam, Delhi and J&K documented 54%.

The all-India number summed up to 2, 03,800 recipients. Official data shared by the health ministry showed almost 2, 24,301 recipients were immunized till Sunday, nearly 71% coverage. Additional health secretary Manohar Agnani said that India had registered the highest one day vaccination number in the world, even more than the UK, US, and France.

The available data is provisional as immunization was happening in many session sites till late evening and few sites were uploading recipient details manually, said the officials. Few recipients reported late on Saturday, possibly due to earlier recipients reporting few side effects.

Dr Suneela Garg, director and professor, department of community medicine in Maulana Azad Medical College said that people are not well prepared and there are still hesitations, so it will take some time to gain their confidence before they take vaccination. This requires strong positive communication with universal acceptance of the vaccine by health workers to prepare the general public.

Amongst the better performing states were Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Arunachal Pradesh with below 10% absentees, while Telangana, Odisha, Sikkim, Haryana Ladakh and Lakshadweep delivered vaccine shots to above 80% registered recipients.

Uttar Pradesh immunized the highest number of recipients at 22,644, and was followed by Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Maharashtra. UP registered 71% attendance, while the other three states were in the range of 60-65%. On Sunday, 17,072 recipients were vaccinated in 553 sessions through six states and they were Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Manipur.

The government said the states are advised to plan COVID-19 immunization sessions four days a week to reduce any interference of routine health services. The government has planned initially to vaccinate 3 crore healthcare and frontline workforces and then 27 crore “priority” population groups that includes those more than 50 years age and those younger individuals with severe co-morbidities.

Source: ET Healthworld