COVID-19: India vaccinates more than 1,90,000 people on first day
Sunday, 17 January 2021 (16:45 IST)
India’s Health Ministry hailed a successful first day of the world’s largest vaccination program, which was launched on Saturday.
More than 1,90,000 people received their first jabs and nobody was hospitalized with negative reactions to the vaccine.
Although authorities had hoped to vaccinate 300,000 people on the first day, a glitch in the app being used to coordinate and monitor the process led to some recipients not being alerted.
Front line health workers and people aged over 50, as well as those deemed at high risk are first in line to receive a jab from one of the two authorized vaccines - the Oxford University-AstraZeneca Covishield vaccine and the Indian-produced Covaxin.
Concerns over Covaxin, which has not yet completed phase 3 trials, have led to doctors requesting only Covishield doses to encourage uptake.
The country plans to immunize 300 million out of the 1.3 billion-strong population by July.
