COVID-19: India vaccinates over 191,100 on 1st day

By Cheena Kapoor

NEW DELHI, India (AA) - A total of 191,181 people were vaccinated across India on the first day of the world’s largest vaccination drive against the coronavirus, the country’s Health Ministry said on Saturday.

“No cases of post-vaccination hospitalization have been reported so far,” the Health Ministry said.

The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, where frontline workers including healthcare workers, sanitation workers, and defense personnel are among the priority group.

The first phase of India's coronavirus vaccination campaign started at 0530GMT across several cities at 3,351 vaccination centers, where Covishield and Covaxin vaccines were administered.

The Pune-based Serum Institute of India is manufacturing the Covishield vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, while Covaxin is the country's indigenous vaccine and is made by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research.

"This was the most relieving day in the past year," Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said.

He, just like Prime Minister Modi, denied vaccination “out of turn” and urged the healthcare workers to get vaccinated first.

Manish Kumar, a sanitation worker, was the first person to receive the COVID-19 vaccine jab at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi.

The Health Ministry also revealed that 2,182 defense personnel received the COVID-19 vaccine.

India's COVID-19 caseload has topped 10.54 million, including 152,093 fatalities and close to 10.18 million recoveries.