27.1.21

India hits 2m vaccination landmark

India crossed a crucial milestone in its fight against Covid-19 on Monday with over 20 lakh beneficiaries vaccinated against SARSCoV2, even as daily new cases of infection as well as deaths were at their lowest in around eight months.

On Monday, 9,102 new cases were registered from across the country. Of this, Kerala and Maharashtra accounted for over 57% cases, with Kerala alone accounting for 37% of total cases.

Similarly, daily deaths on Monday dropped to 117, lowest in more than eight months. While five states — Maharashtra, Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Utrar Pradesh and West Bengal — accounted for over 63% of the 117 fatalities, Maharashtra reported the highest 30 deaths, followed by Kerala and Chhattisgarh with 17 and 13 new deaths, respectively.

On Monday, 4,08,305 health workers were inoculated in 7,764 sessions across the country. However, only five states – Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana — conducted vaccination sessions on Tuesday because of Republic Day celebrations. Only 5,615 beneficiaries received the jabs, of which Tamil Nadu alone vaccinated 4,926 beneficiaries.

Officials said declining cases of Covid are reassuring that India is on track and the vaccine hesitancy has also been addressed to a large extent with the massive awareness campaign launched by the health ministry last week.

“With a sustained, pro-active and calibrated strategy of the Centre based on ‘whole of government’ and ‘whole of society’ approach, the daily new cases have seen a consistent decline. This has ensured a steady fall in daily fatalities too, “ the ministry said.

Active cases per million population in India is also lowest in the world at 128. Germany (3,309), Russia (3,549), Brazil(4,431), Italy (8,138), UK (28,241) and US (29,547) have much higher cases per million population.

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