India inoculates over 16 lakh with COVID-19 vaccine; Karnataka tops the list

After a sluggish start in the first week, India's vaccination numbers have gradually picked up with nearly 3.5 lakh healthcare workers getting vaccinated on day 7.

India has inoculated more than 16 lakh healthcare and frontline workers till January 24, in nine days since the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme began, according to government data which also said that more than 31,000 healthcare workers were vaccinated in five states on Sunday.

"31,466 beneficiaries were vaccinated till 7.30 pm today in these States viz. Haryana (907), Karnataka (2,472), Punjab (1,007), Rajasthan (24,586) and Tamil Nadu (2,494). 693 sessions were held till 6.30 pm today," the release further said.

“Only 10 adverse events following immunisation have been reported till 7.30 pm on the ninth day of the vaccination drive,” it stated.

Karnataka leads the overall tally, with 1,91,443 beneficiaries getting the Covid-19 vaccine, according to government data. The other leading states are Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Telangana. All these states have vaccinated over one lakh people.

The total number of beneficiaries, who were vaccinated till 7.30 pm on Sunday since the launch of the drive, include 1,47,030 in Andhra Pradesh, 76,125 in Bihar, 53,529 in Kerala, 1,91,443 in Karnataka, 61,720 in Tamil Nadu, 25,811 in Delhi, 78,466 in Gujarat and 84,505 in West Bengal, according to provisional reports.

India was the fastest to administer Covid-19 vaccine doses to one million people, reaching the milestone in just six days. The United Kingdom took 18 days whereas the United States took 10 days to reach the one million mark, according to the Union health ministry.