Over 1 cr vaccinated against Covid so far

A little over a month after starting its Covid-19 inoculation drive, India on Friday achieved the landmark feat of vaccinating over one crore people against the deadly virus. The health ministry said Friday India was the second-fastest after the United States to achieve this milestone.

While the US had taken

31 days to achieve this, Britain had crossed the one-crore vaccination mark in 56 days. India achieved it in 34 days. Till

8 am Friday, the total number of Covid-19 vaccine doses administered to healthcare workers and frontline workers in India was 1,01,88,007.

The ministry data, however, showed an uneven pattern, with several states and Union territories injecting doses to less than 50 per cent of their target frontline workers. Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Punjab are among the larger states yet to reach 50 per cent vaccine coverage.

Among eight states that accounted for 57.47 per cent of total inoculations in the country, Uttar Pradesh accounted for 10.5 per cent doses. Seven states administered 60.85 per cent of the second dose vaccine.

In this, Telangana led the charts, with a 12-per cent share of the second dose vaccine administration in the country.

In January, the Drugs Controller-General of India approved the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, locally produced by the Serum Institute of India as Covishield, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, making the two India’s first vaccines against the pandemic.

On Friday, pharma giant Dr Reddy’s Labs said it had sought emergency use authorisation for Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine in India.

As part of the review process, Dr Reddy’s will present the safety profile of the Phase 2 study, and interim data of the Phase 3 study, that is expected to be over by February 21.

Going by the speed at which the vaccination drive is going on, it will take two more years to get

30 per cent of the population inoculated in India. Experts have suggested private healthcare bodies should also be involved to ramp up the vaccination process.

Meanwhile, a total of

13,193 new Covid-19 cases were detected in a span of 24 hours. The death toll rose to 1,56,111 with 97 new fatalities in the last 24 hours.

The fatalities count was reported to be between one and five in 15 states and Union territories, while it was between six and 10 in three states and Union territories.

Meanwhile, even as the Coronavirus cases in Maharashtra are rising, four MVA ministers and senior leaders have been infected by the virus in the last four days.

Maharashtra public health minister Rajesh Tope got infected on Thursday.

Ministers Bacchu Kadu, Jayant Patil and Rajendra

Shingne have also found Covid positive.

In addition to this, senior NCP leader Eknath Khadse and his daughterin-law Raksha Khadse, who is also BJP MP from Raver, have also tested positive.

Minister of state for water resources and education Bacchu Kadu has tested positive for Covid for the second time on Friday.

Also, new strains of coronavirus found in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil have not been detected in Amravati, Yavatmal and Satara districts of Maharashtra where cases have spiked recently, the state government said on Friday.

been

EVEN AS Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra are rising, four MVA ministers and senior leaders have been infected by the virus in the last four days.