The Union ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) said on Sunday more than 2.7 million doses of the vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) were administered on the first of the four-day ‘Tika Utsav.’ “On Day-1 of Tika Utsav, more than 27 lakh vaccine doses were administered, till 8pm today. Sunday generally witnessed lower vaccination numbers (about 16 lakh on an average),” the ministry shared on its Twitter account.
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“Day-1 of Tika Utsav saw many Workplace Vaccination Centres operational. On an average, 45,000 COVID Vaccination Centres (CVCs) are functional on any given day Today, 63,8000 CVCs were operational, a rise of 18,800,” it added.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called for a ‘Tika Utsav’ or a vaccination festival to be observed across the country between April 11-14 during his virtual interaction with chief ministers on Thursday over rising daily cases of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the country and amid complaints of vaccine shortage by some states. While April 11 is the birth anniversary of social activist Jyotiba Phule, April 14 marks the birth anniversary of BR Ambedkar, also known as the “Father of Indian Constitution.”
Also from Sunday, all those who were eligible to be vaccinated in the third phase of the nationwide vaccination drive, became eligible to be inoculated at their workplaces.
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India’s vaccination drive began on January 16, with healthcare workers and frontline workers getting the doses in the first phase. In the second phase, from March 1 onwards, those of the age of 60 and above, as well as those between 45-59 years old with co-morbidities, became eligible. From April 1, which marked the beginning of the third phase, vaccination was opened for everyone above the age of 45.
India has authorised two vaccines for its inoculation drive. One is Oxford University-AstraZeneca’s shot, which is being manufactured here by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) as Covishield. The other shot is Covaxin from the Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited, India’s only homemade vaccine against the viral disease.
According to MoHFW’s dashboard on Sunday morning, 101,595,147 vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far—the figures will be updated at 8am on Monday morning with the numbers of doses administered on Sunday. According to the health ministry, India is the fastest to the 100 million vaccination mark, surpassing the United States of America.
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