India’s glitch-free vaccination gathers pace

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The nationwide vaccination campaign launched Saturday, the largest such exercise in the world, has started setting new benchmarks, with vaccines administered to 2,24,301 beneficiaries in the first two days.

“India has vaccinated the highest number of persons on Day1 under its COVID19 vaccination program, the world’s largest such exercise. This is much higher than many other countries such as USA, the UK and France,” a health ministry release said on Sunday evening.

On the second day, Sunday, a total of 553 sessions were held in six states and 17,072 beneficiaries were vaccinated as per the provisional reports.

States/UTs have been advised to plan COVID19 vaccination sessions four days in a week to minimise disruption of the routine health services. Some states have already publicized their weekly vaccination days.

A total of 447 cases of adverse reactions (called Adverse Event Following Immunization – AEFI) were reported in the two days. Three of them required hospitalisation. Of these, one has been discharged from Northern Railway Hospital Delhi within 24 hours; one has been discharged from AIIMS Delhi; and one is under observation in AIIMS Rishikesh and is being monitored. Most of the AEFIs reported so far are minor like fever, headache and nausea.

An AEFI is any unexpected medical occurrence which follows immunization which may not be related to vaccine or vaccination process. Protocols are in place for reporting, immediate case management at vaccination session site, transportation and hospitalization and further care of such cases. Protocols are also in place for systematic investigation and causality assessment of serious AEFIs.

A meeting was held with all states/UTs on Sunday for review of progress, identification of bottle-necks and to plan corrective actions as the vaccination program moves ahead.