Punjab among 7 states to start Covaxin delivery next week

Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 23

Punjab and six other states—Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, and West Bengal—will start Covaxin delivery from next week.

These seven will be in addition to the 12 that have already been administering Covaxin since January 16, the day the national COVID vaccine drive was launched.

An orientation session for programme managers from the seven states to start on Covaxin shortly was held here on Saturday.

As of Saturday 6 pm, 15, 37, 190 persons had been administered the first dose of COVID vaccines with 11 hospitalizations reported since January 16. 

Hospitalisations amount to 0.0007 pc of the total vaccine beneficiaries.

“There have been six deaths since the vaccine drive started but none of the deaths have been found to have any links to the COVID shots. A post mortem on the 56-year-old woman vaccine beneficiary from Gurugram who died in the last 24 hours has found that she expired due to a cardio pulmonary attack,” Additional Secretary Health Manohar Agnani said.

Of the 11 persons hospitalised, only one remains in care at Guntur in Andhra Pradesh.

Agnani said there have been 123 adverse events following immunisation so far, none of these severe or serious.

On Saturday, 1,46,598 beneficiaries were vaccinated in 3,368 sessions.

Cumulative vaccination sessions held across India so far have been 27,776.