Covid-19 inoculation drive successfully conducted on first day: Health ministry

"A total of 3,351 sessions were held wherein 1,65,714 beneficiaries were vaccinated, as per provisional reports," Union health ministry Manohar Agnani said

Over 1.65 lakh beneficiaries were inoculated with Covid-19 jabs at 3,351 session sites across the country on Saturday and no case of post-inoculation hospitalisation has been reported so far, the government said on the first day of India's massive vaccination drive against the virus.

The Covid-19 vaccination drive was successfully conducted on the first day, Additional Secretary in the Union health ministry Manohar Agnani said during a press briefing.

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"A total of 3,351 sessions were held wherein 1,65,714 beneficiaries were vaccinated, as per provisional reports," he said.

A total of 16,755 personnel were involved in organising the vaccination sessions, Agnani said.

The 11 states and union territories where both Covishield and Covaxin were administered were Assam (65 sessions), Bihar (301), Delhi (81), Haryana (77), Karnataka (242), Maharashtra (285), Odisha (161), Rajasthan (167) Tamil Nadu (160), Telangana (14) and Uttar Pradesh (317).

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the vaccination drive while reassuring the country that emergency use authorisation was given to two made in India vaccines only after scientists were convinced of their safety and effectiveness, and urged people to beware of propaganda and rumours.

The 1,65,714 beneficiaries included 78 from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 76 from Ladakh, 43 from Daman and Diu, 64 from Dadra And Nagar Haveli, 21 from Lakshadweep, 195 from Chandigarh and 373 from Goa.

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Besides, 16,963 were vaccinated in Andhra Pradesh, 16,401 in Bihar, 15,727 in Maharashtra, 4,985 in Chhattisgarh, 8,557 in Gujarat, 743 in Arunachal Pradesh, 2,721 in Assam, 3,403 in Delhi, 4,656 in Haryana, 1,408 in Himachal Pradesh and 1,954 in Jammu and Kashmir.

More than one crore cases and 1.5 lakh fatalities later, India took its first steps out of the pandemic with shots of the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines being administered at medical centres across the country.

Sanitation worker Manish Kumar became the first recipient of the vaccination drive at Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), according to the health ministry.

Of the first day beneficiaries, 2,897 were in Jharkhand, 12,637 in Karnataka, 7,206 in Kerala, 6,739 in Madhya Pradesh, 510 in Manipur, 509 in Meghalaya, 314 in Mizoram, 499 in Nagaland, 8,675 in Odisha, 206 in Puducherry, 1,200 in Punjab, 9,279 in Rajasthan, 120 in Sikkim, 2,728 in Tamil Nadu, 3,600 in Telangana, 266 in Tripura, 15,975 in Uttar Pradesh, 2,226 in Uttarakhand and 9,578 in West Bengal.