‘Vaccines showing 99.3% effectiveness in the double-inoculated’

Responding to a question in the Lok Sabha, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday that double-inoculated people are showing a vaccine effectiveness of 99.3%. This data has been collated up to 2 January by India COVID-19 Vaccine Tracker developed by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), by merging the databases maintained by CoWIN, National COVID-19 Testing database and COVID-19 India portal.

The Minister later tweeted that as many as 65% of COVID-19 vaccination beneficiaries in the 15-18 age group in the country have been administered the first dose of the vaccine.

“Young India’s historic effort continues. In just 1 month, 65% of children aged 15-18 received the first dose of the vaccine. World’s largest vaccination campaign is creating new records under the leadership of Prime Minister @NarendraModi. #SabkoVaccineMuftVaccine,” he tweeted.

India’s cumulative COVID-19 vaccination coverage exceeded the 168.47 crore mark on Friday, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday.

The vaccination drive for beneficiaries in the age group 15-18 was started on 3 January 2022. India’s total COVID-19 death toll breached the five-lakh mark as the country logged 1,072 fresh fatalities along with 149,394 fresh COVID cases in the last 24 hours, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Friday.

The death toll in the country stands at 5,00,055. With 1,42,859 deaths, Maharashtra has reported the most fatalities in the country, followed by Kerala (56,701), Karnataka (39,197), Tamil Nadu (37,666), Delhi (25,932) and Uttar Pradesh (23,277).

As many as 246,674 recoveries were reported in the last 24 hours, thereby taking the total recoveries in the country to 40,017,088. The recovery rate currently is at 95.39%.

India had a daily positivity rate of 9.27% on Friday. Delhi reported 2,272 new cases of COVID-19 during the last 24 hours, with the positivity rate dipping to 3.85%.

Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Friday appreciated Denmark’s effort in recognising Indian COVID-19 vaccines after his conversation with Danish counterpart Jeppe Kofod. “Nice to talk to FM @JeppeKofod. Appreciate Denmark’s recognition of Indian vaccines Covaxin and Covishield. Discussed our bilateral relations and the regional situation,” tweeted S. Jaishankar.