E-Paper
Only 0.1% of vax beneficiaries in Pune have contracted Covid
Data released by the district health office states 0.1% of those who have received at least one shot of the vax have contracted Covid in Pune district
PUNE Barely 0.1% of those who have received at least one shot of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine have contracted the virus in Pune district, data from the district health office has revealed, indicating that breakthrough infections recorded in the Maharashtra district are minimal.
Out of the 6.3 million beneficiaries who have taken the vaccine until August 6, only 7,636 tested positive for Covid-19. Only 2,170 tested positive for the infection out of the 1.64 million who have got both doses of the vaccine.
“The aim of the vaccine is to ensure that the severity of the symptoms is reduced and even if that is done the spread of the transmission and the death rate could be controlled,” said state advisor on Covid-19 Dr Subhash Salunkhe.
The data comes at a time when the state has relaxed lockdown restrictions in at least 25 districts, including Pune, which has been one of the worst affected in both waves of the pandemic.
It also seems to corroborate studies that have found a low incidence of breakthrough infections among vaccinated people.
Double vaccinated people were three times less likely than unvaccinated people to test positive for the coronavirus, an ongoing REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission (REACT-1) programme led by Imperial’s School of Public Health, has found. In the latest round of the study, which will be submitted for peer-review, 98,233 people swabbed themselves at home and their samples were analysed by PCR testing. People who were unvaccinated had a three-fold higher prevalence than those who had received both doses of a vaccine, at 1.21% compared to 0.40%, the Imperial College London, reported.
A total of 4.68 million beneficiaires have got the first vaccine dose in Pune (both Covaxin and Covishield) out of which only 5,466 reported being reinfected, the Pune district data revealed.
“Such data will also reduce vaccine hesitancy among a number of people who still question the efficacy of the vaccines,” Salunkhe said.
Out of the total positives 7636, who got infected even after vaccination, 3413 are from Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) jurisdiction, 88 are from Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and 4135 are from Pune rural
“This data is not surprising because all across the world we have found that while people who have taken both shots of the vaccine may get infected, the need for hospitalization, intensive care or ventilators reduces drastically. This means the case fatality due to the infection also falls,” Arnub Ghose, Associate Professor at Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) said.
