Over 14.8 million Covid-19 vaccine doses administered in India: Centre

The Centre has deputed teams to Tamil Nadu and Punjab following a surge in Covid-19 cases

Over 14.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered so far in the country, said the Union Health Ministry on Tuesday.

It also informed that 2,08,791 people above 60 or those aged 45-60 with comorbidities have been given first dose of COVID vaccine from Monday 9 am till Tuesday 1 pm.

Giving out details of the second phase of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive for age-appropriate population groups that started yesterday, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said : "More than 1.48 crores doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered till 1 pm today. Out of this, 2.08 lakh doses have been given to people who are 45 years to 59 years of age with comorbidities and people with above 60 years of age."

Moreover, the Centre has deputed teams to Tamil Nadu and Punjab following surge in COVID-19 cases across various states in the country.

"We have deputed central teams to Tamil Nadu and Punjab. We are monitoring Haryana as well," said Bhushan while addressing a press conference.

Although certain states in the country have seen a surge in the number of active cases, the fact remains that the recovered cases are more than 97 per cent and active cases are still less than 2 per cent, he added.

Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO) which says if 140 tests per million are being conducted per day and case positivity rate is at 5 per cent or below, it means the COVID19 pandemic is under control, the Health Secretary said: "We are very close to that mark at 5.11 per cent overall case positivity."

Chairperson of Empowered Group on COVID vaccination, RS Sharma said that there were 50 lakh registrations on CoWIN online portal for COVID-19 vaccination since yesterday.

Dr VK Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, urged people to avoid large gatherings, parties and weddings to prevent spread of the virus.

"Public compliance for COVID-19 appropriate behaviour cannot be diluted. Please avoid large gatherings, parties, weddings etc. These could be super spreading events," he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah among other top-notch leaders were administered the first shot of COVID-19 vaccine on Monday.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Monday clarified that there is no CoWIN application for registration and booking an appointment for the vaccine, and explained that the app on the play store is for administrators.

On February 24, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) deputed high-level multi-disciplinary teams to Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Punjab, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir for supporting them in public health measures for targeted COVID response and management.