Published: Saturday, January 16, 2021, 16:10 [IST]
Kochi, Jan 16: Receiving the first shot of COVID-19 vaccine in this southern port city, renowned cardio-thoracic surgeon Dr Jose Chacko Periyappuram on Saturday hailed the country s efforts to wipe out the novel coronavirus and said he felt comfortable after the vaccination.
Dr Periyappuram, who performed the first successful heart transplant in Kerala, urged people to not fall prey to the false propaganda unleashed on the social media against the global effort to end the pandemic. Some people have some misconceptions about the vaccination. They are seen carried away by false propaganda unleashed through the social media, he said.
Explained: How two COVID-19 shots, launched in India work
India
Updated: Saturday, January 16, 2021, 15:24 [IST]
New Delhi, Jan 16: India on Saturday launched one of the world s biggest vaccination programmes with COVID vaccines manufactured in the country - one developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, the other by Bharat Biotech International with a state-run institute.
It is reportedly said that three crore health and other frontline workers, followed by about 27 crore older than 50 or considered high-risk would receive COVID-19 vaccine.
Covishield
Covishield is developed by the University of Oxford and British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca and manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India. This vaccine has emerged as the most promising vaccine for countries like India where cost and logistics are a significant consideration.
According to the guidelines, all government and non-government health workers will be vaccinated first. While nine lakh health workers are scheduled to receive the shots in the first three days, those who do not get it for any reason will be vaccinated on the fourth day.
Such a vaccination drive at such a massive scale was never conducted in history. There are over 100 countries having less than 3 crore population & India is administering vaccination to 3 crore people in first phase only. In second phase, we ve to take this number to 30 crores, PM added.