THE first COVID-19 vaccine shots in India were given on Saturday to nearly two lakh frontline healthcare and sanitary workers as Prime Minister Narendra Modi rolled out the world’s largest inoculation drive against the pandemic that has caused 1,52,093 deaths and upended millions of lives in the country. As Modi asserted that the two vaccines being deployed will ensure a “decisive victory” for India against the coronavirus, the Union Health Ministry said no case of post-inoculation hospitalisation has been reported so far and the vaccination drive was successful. Sanitation workers were the first to get the jabs in Delhi and some states.

 

A total of 1,91,181 beneficiaries were inoculated with COVID-19 jabs at 3,352 session sites across the country on the first day, the Health Ministry said. A sense of joy and excitement was witnessed at medical centres across the country with the beneficiaries being administered the Covishield and Covaxin vaccines less than a year after India recorded the first coronavirus case in Kerala on January 30 last. Addressing the nation ahead of the launch of what he described as the world’s largest vaccination programme, Modi reassured the country that emergency use authorisation was given to the two made in India vaccines only after scientists were convinced of their safety and effectiveness, and urged people to beware of propaganda and rumours.

 

Sanitation worker Manish Kumar, 34, was the first recipient of the vaccine shot at Delhi’s All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), the Union Health Ministry said. Injecting confidence in the people, several high profile persons, including AIIMS director Randeep Guleria, NITI Aayog member V K Paul, who is also head of an empowered group on medical equipment and management plan to tackle the coronavirus outbreak, Serum Institute of India(SII) CEO Adar Poonawallah, West Bengal minister Nirmal Maji, BJP MP Mahesh Sharma, who is a doctor by profession, Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Group, Dr Prathap C Reddy and Chairman of Manipal Hospitals Sudarshan Ballal also received their first shot of the two-dose vaccine. Senior doctors received the first shot at many identified vaccination sites to dispel any apprehensions about the vaccine. Vardhan said the two vaccines -- Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and Covishield from the Oxford/AstraZeneca stable manufactured by the SII. -- were a ‘sanjivani’, life infusing, in the fight against the pandemic.

 

The shots are first being offered to an estimated one crore healthcare workers, and around two crore frontline workers, and then to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities. The cost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers will be borne by the Central Government In his address, Prime Minister Modi reminded people that two doses of the vaccine are very important and asked them to continue with masks and social distancing even after receiving the jabs. “Dawaai bhi, kadaai bhi,” Modi said, asking people to guard against complacency and follow COVID-19 appropriate behaviour. From the heights of Ladakh to coastal Kerala, there was an almost festive air at many hospitals and medical centres decorated with flowers, balloons and buntings. Prayers, and sweets and gift hampers too, were offered in several places. One video showed a vaccine box being garlanded as a nurse performed an ‘arti’.

 

“It’s a great day for humankind. I feel elated to get the first dose,” said Bipasha Seth, a doctor at a private hospital in Kolkata. In Gujarat, the drive began at 161 centres in the state where the vaccine jabs were administered to health workers almost simultaneously. In Mumbai, JJ Hospital Dean Dr Ranjit Mankeshwar was among the first in the state to get the shot. The inoculation drive is taking place at 285 centres in Maharashtra. Ranganath Bhojje, a worker at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), kicked off the vaccination drive in the coastal state and said he was feeling “rather lucky”. In Madhya Pradesh, where healthcare workers were welcomed with flowers at some centres and doctors performed a ‘puja’ at a temple in Gwalior, a sanitation worker was among the first beneficiaries.

 

Tulsa Tandi, a 51-year-old sanitation worker was first in the queue in Chhattisgarh. Tamil Nadu rolled out the COVID-19 vaccination drive at 166 sites across the state with a government doctor the first to be administered the shot. And in Telangana, a woman sanitation worker received the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a Hyderabad hospital to cheers and claps. The drive to combat COVID-19 began in Kerala at 133 designated centres with prominent government doctors among the first batch of frontline workers to be administered the vaccine.