Two vaccine doses successful in preventing 95% deaths, says ICMR study

A study on vaccine effectiveness in Tamil Nadu by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has shown that two vaccine doses were successful in preventing 95 per cent of deaths due to Covid-19 in the second wave, which was driven by the Delta variant. The study was conducted on 117,524 police personnel. India has so far given 394 million vaccine doses. 

V K Paul, member (health) NITI Aayog, said the government was facilitating vaccine production in the country and the future looked optimistic. “If there is any gap in coordination (with states), we should be able to fix it. We have visibility on vaccine availability this month — around 130-140 million doses. This has been communicated to the states in advance,” he said. The study also claimed that 80 per cent of vaccinated Indians who got Covid-19 were infected by the Delta variant.