Mumbai/New Dehi, 4 February 2021

 

Around 46 Lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been administered till date, informed the Union Health Secretary Shri Rajesh Bhushan. Speaking at a media briefing in the National Media Centre in New Delhi today, Shri Bhushan further stated, active cases are less than 1.60 lakhs now and are further declining. The Recovery Rate has crossed 97% mark, while the cumulative positivity rate which stands at 5.42% now is also further declining.

The Health Secretary said, two States - Kerala and Maharashtra with 69,365 and 38,762 active cases presently are contributing more than 70% cases in the country now. While Kerala account for 44.8% of these cases, Maharashtra's share is 25% of the active cases.   

Out of 1.07 crore cases that have occurred in India till date, only 1.55 lakh are active cases as on date. The number of tests done till date stand at 19.9 crores. This apart, 1.54 lakh persons have died from COVID-19 till date. However, 251 districts in the country have not reported any death in the last three weeks, while 47 districts have shown zero cases in the same period. 

The eight States/UTs having weekly positivity rate more than the national average are Kerala, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Goa, Nagaland, Ladakh, Puducherry and Chandigarh. "This is certainly a reason for worry. We are continuously being in touch with them. We have also sent central teams to some of these states yesterday", stated the Union Health Secretary. 

"The worldwide COVID-19 situation is still worrisome. Some countries have seen multiple peaks, while some countries have seen surges at least twice. In India, cases are declining. But this indicates that we still have to follow COVID Appropriate Behaviour", said the Union Health Secretary. While countries like USA, UK, Brazil, Germany and Russia have shown a surge in deaths for a second time, India is seeing a decline in the number of COVID-19 deaths. 

Speaking about the largest vaccine drive occuring in the country, the Union Health Secretary briefed that, the first 4 million vaccines were given within a record lowest period of 18 days in India. 

In the context of COVID Vaccination, Shri Bhushan stated, a feedback is being collected from beneficiaries a day after vaccination. This 'Rapid Assessment System' has been developed by NeGD of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. In this process, which started from February 17, 2021, a personalized SMS is sent to all beneficiaries a day after vaccination. The SMS contains the name of person, dose (first/ second) and a URL for feedback. Once the user confirms for vaccination against his/her name, five questions are asked. If no feedback is received, an outbound call is made the next day for feedback. In the case of not being answered, another call is made after 4 hours to contact the beneficiary and collect feedback. 

As per latest data of the assessment system, more than 97% people are satisfied with overall vaccination experience in the country. Out of 5,12,128 of the more than 37 lakh beneficiaries who gave their feedback, 97.41% people confirmed that social distancing is being maintained at vaccination sites, while 98.43% have confirmed that they were informed about the vaccine process and given the vaccine properly. 88.95% of the feedback-givers confirmed that they were informed about Adverse Event Follwing Immunization (AEFI), while 97.13% confirmed that they were asked to wait for 30 minutes post-vaccination for monitoring. 

In the COVID immunization drive, 5912 public health care centres and 1239 private healthcare centres are being used as vaccination session sites. "As we proceed ahead, we would be involving the private healthcare sector in a much larger extend", added Shri Bhushan. 

The States and UTs that have completed the first dose of vaccination of fifty percent or more of their healthcare workers are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tripura, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Odisha, Kerala, Haryana, Bihar, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh. 

The States/UTs that have covered 30% or less of Health Care Workers in the COVID immunization drive till date are: Sikkim, Ladakh, Tamil Nadu, J & K, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur and Puducherry. These states are given suggestions by the Union Health Ministry over video-conferences and meetings about how to increase the immunization coverage, stated the Union Health Secretary. 

In all, more than 43 lakh health care workers have been vaccinated till date. 96 lakh 31 thousand and 637 healthcare workers have registered in the COWIN platform for vaccination. Hence, 45% of Health Care Workers have been vaccinated so far, stated the Health Secretary. 

DG, ICMR - Prof (Dr.) Balram Bhargava informed about the third national sero-srvey that was conducted before vaccination started, in the period between December 17, 2020 to January 8, 2021. The survey was carried out on a general population of about 28,000 people and about 7000 healthcare workers. The survey has been conducted in the same 700 villages and wards in 70 districts from 21 States which were selected during the 1st and 2nd rounds of sero-survey held previously in the months of May-June and August-September respectively. 

The findings of the 3rd sero-survey are as follows:

- Overall seroprevalence is 21.5% of the population, which includes 31.7 % of urban slums, 26.2% of urban non-slum and 19.1% of rural (19.1%) areas. 

- A large proportion of the population still remains vulnerable, which calls for no complacency in following COVID Appropriate Behaviour by all. This apart, it points out the necessity of vaccine. 

- Prevalence of infection has been found amongst 25.7% of healthcare workers.

Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog dispelled prevailing narratives on the role of Private Health Care Sector in COVID vaccination and expiry period of COVID vaccines.“Are we involving our private health care sector of our country? Yes. They form an integral part of our India's health care system and we are very proud of that. With the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) the distinction between private and public health care does not exist”, he said. He also mentioned about how the private sector are serving the people of India and that there is an active sturdy and highly satisfactory participation of private sector facilities hand in hand with the public health care sector. “This collaboration and partnership will be further augmented in a very big way in time to come as we are moving towards the next phase of our vaccination drive”, he added.

He went on to speak about the apprehensions prevailing about the expiry of COVID vaccine.  

“There is no question of losing the utility of a vaccine because they get expired before we could administer it on time; not a single dose will be wasted. We are monitoring the vaccines twice daily and we are very well aware as of which batches are expiring when,” said Mr. Paul.

He also cautioned citing the results of the third sero survey conducted by the ICMR. “The overall picture of the current sero survey shows that even now that the infection can be spread to more than 75% people.” He stated that hence it is very crucial to strictly following COVID appropriate behaviors.

“We have seen in many countries how the graph came down but suddenly saw a spike. A big proportion of our population is still vulnerable,” he said. However he also mentioned that through the national mission of vaccination programme we will be able to overcome the pandemic in a better way.

He appealed to the media and the public to be a part of this drive “I request you to continue to promote positive behavior and acceptance of vaccines, and see that science is driving the whole process of pandemic fight in this great country.” He also mentioned that the speed with which 45% of Health care workers have already been vaccinated is an evidence that the hesitancy has gone and confidence has grown among the citizens and HCWs.

Health Secretary, in an answer to the media regarding adverse effects of vaccination seen in certain people, said that, “8563 Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) have been captured in our digital system among vaccination done in lakhs until now. This accounts to only 0.18% of the total vaccination. 34 cases of hospitalization has been reported which is 0.0007% of those immunized. Post mortem of all 19 deaths of vaccinated people have been carried out by a board of three doctors. The state AEFI committees have deliberated on all these matters. There is no evidence of deaths caused due to the vaccination and once the National AEFI committee meets and deliberate on this, the data will be shared in public domain.”

The presentation made by Health Secretary in today’s briefing can be accessed here.

The presentation made by DG, ICMR in today’s briefing can be accessed here.

 

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RT/SC/DL/DR

 

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