97% of 512,000 surveyed vaccine recipients satisfied with process: Govt

India began its Covid-19 vaccination drive last month

Over 97 per cent of over 512,000 people surveyed after being inoculated against COVID-19 have expressed satisfaction with the vaccination process, the health ministry said on Thursday.

The government is taking feedback from vaccinated people since January 17 through its mobile app CoWIN and has got responses from 5,12,128 people out of the 37 lakh it had approached for feedback on the immunisation process, secretary in the ministry Rajesh Bhushan told a press conference.

The nationwide inoculation drive was launched on January 16 with over three crore healthcare and frontline workers prioritised to get the jabs initially.

Bhushan said, "On January 17, we started taking feedback on CoWIN application through the Rapid Assessment System (RAS) from those users who have been vaccinated."

"Ninety-seven per cent people are satisfied with overall vaccination experience. This data is based on feedback from 5,12,128 people. Out of 37 lakh people to whom we sent the SMSes and followed up with outbound calls, a size of 5,12,128 people actually replied. They have been analysed," he said.

Through the system, beneficiaries were asked four questions in a personalised message, a day after COVID-19 vaccine was administered to them, Bhushan said.

"Once the user confirms receiving the vaccination, questions are asked. If no reply is received, an outbound call is made to them through the system asking for feedback," he said.

Out of the total feedbacks received, 97.38 per cent expressed satisfaction with the overall process of vaccination and 97.41 confirmed that proper social distancing was maintained at immunisation sites, Bhushan said.

He said that 98.43 per cent confirmed that they were informed about the process of vaccination and that it was given properly, 88.95 per cent people said they were informed about adverse event following immunization and 97.13 per cent confirmed that they were asked to wait for 30 minutes for monitoring after they were vaccinated.

As per the government, 1,239 private hospitals and 5,912 public facilities are being used as COVID-19 immunisation sites in the country.