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With 3,000 vaccination sites and a capacity of 100 persons per site, the Centre had planned to vaccinate 300,000 persons nationally on Saturday. Consolidated figures on Sunday show that about 207,000 — or about seven in ten — were inoculated on the inaugural day.
Of all those vaccinated so far, 447 reported reactions such as pain, mild swelling, mild fever or nausea, with only three persons requiring hospitalisation. The drop in hospitalisations compared to the inaugural day on Saturday was because of it being Sunday with only six States — Arunachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Manipur and Tamil Nadu — conducting vaccinations.
You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here. A list of State Helpline numbers is available as well.
Here are live updates:
Pakistan
South Africa cricket squad clears COVID tests upon arriving in Pakistan
The entire South Africa cricket team has cleared the COVID-19 tests, allowing the tourists to take part in their first outdoor practice session in Karachi on Sunday.
The South African squad, which includes 21 players, underwent their first COVID-19 tests soon after landing in Karachi on Saturday morning and according to their media manager, all the reports came negative.
The players and officials were then allowed to go to the Karachi Gymkhana ground adjacent to their hotel and have their first training session.
The players and officials will undergo another round of COVID-19 tests in two days time.
Brazil
Brazil’s health agency approves the use of two vaccines
Brazil’s health regulator on Sunday approved the urgent use of coronavirus vaccines made by Sinovac and AstraZeneca, enabling Latin America’s largest nation to begin an immunisation program that’s been subject to months of delay and political disputes.
Brazil currently has 6 million doses of Sinovac’s CoronaVac vaccine ready to distribute in the next few days, and is awaiting the arrival of another 2 million doses of the vaccine made by AstraZeneca and partner Oxford University.
On Saturday night, the health regulator Anvisa rejected an application for use of a Russian vaccine called Sputnik V, submitted by Brazilian company União Química. Anvisa said it didn’t evaluate the application because it didn’t meet minimum requirements to start an analysis.
Vaccination in Brazil is beginning later than neighbors such as Argentina and Chile despite a robust public health system and decades of experience with immunisation campaigns. The process to present and approve the COVID-19 vaccines was fraught with conflict, as allies of President Jair Bolsonaro sought to cast doubt on the efficacy of the Sinovac shot backed by his political rival, Sao Paulo state’s Gov. João Doria.
Tamil Nadu
Vaccination numbers in Chennai fall on second day
The Greater Chennai Corporation has registered a decrease in the number of beneficiaries who received COVID-19 vaccination on the second day of the immunisation programme.
The number of beneficiaries reduced from 568 on Saturday to 437 on Sunday at the 12 centres in the city, seeing a 14% decline in numbers.
Officials made arrangements to vaccinate at least 100 persons in each centre every day. But some of the 12 centres registered less than 10 beneficiaries on Sunday. The Porur urban community health centre registered just seven. The Institute for Obstetrics and Gynaecology registered eight, compared with the 70 on Saturday.
Most beneficiaries visited in the morning, with the 12 centres registering 274 beneficiaries at 1 p.m. After that, many centres registered less than 10 visitors. Between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on Sunday, no one visited three of the 12 centres.
Karnataka
58.4% covered on second day of vaccination in Karnataka
On the second day of the vaccination drive that was conducted in 63 vaccine session sites in Bengaluru Urban and one site in Udupi, the State achieved an overall coverage of 58.4%. While Udupi recorded 40% coverage, Bengaluru Urban recorded 57.7% coverage.
On the first day on Saturday, the State had achieved nearly 62%. Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said vaccination would continue in more centres from Monday onwards.
Speaking to presspersons after visiting the programme at Manipal Hospitals in Bengaluru on Sunday, where 4,055 healthcare workers were targeted to be covered at 41 sites, the Minister said the second phase of vaccination in the State will start only after both the doses are administered to targeted healthcare workers. The first will be given to all healthcare workers in the next ten days, he said.
Andhra Pradesh
13,041 persons turn up to get the jab on Day 2 in A.P.
Only 47.8% beneficiaries who had registered themselves for vaccination against COVID-19 received the vaccine on the second day at 308 session sites across the State as of 8.30 p.m. on Sunday, the Health Department said.
Officials planned to vaccinate 27,009 beneficiaries at 312 session sites, but only 13,041 of them received the shots. The remaining did not turn up due to various reasons.
Two cases of Adverse Event Following Immunisation (AEFI) were reported in Krishna and Nellore districts.
New Delhi
Some didn’t turn up for COVID vaccination at the last moment in Delhi: Health Minister Satyendar Jain
Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain on Sunday said some people did not turn up for coronavirus vaccination at the last moment, adding that the government cannot ask anyone to compulsorily take the jab.
He also said that the number of vaccination centres in Delhi will be increased from 81 to 175 soon.
In Delhi, a total of 4,319 healthcare workers – 53.3% of those registered – got the vaccine shots on the first day of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on Saturday, the minister said.
Mr. Jain noted that a similar trend was observed across the country, adding that around 50% of those registered got the jabs on the first day.
New Delhi
10% of CSIR staff exposed to COVID-19, survey finds
A first of its kind pan-India survey tracking about 10,000 employees of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) on the prevalence of COVID-19 found that nearly 10% of the staff were infected. Key neutralising antibodies that protect against the virus waned after infection but were at “detectable levels” even after six months — a proxy for the period of effectiveness of future vaccination and general immunity, the serology survey found.
About three-fourths of the respondents could not recall having experienced a single one of the symptoms commonly associated with the disease, and a vegetarian diet as well as smoking appeared to be “protective” against the infection.
The CSIR has about 40 labs across the country in nearly every State and its staff — from scientific staff to contractual employees — is a microcosm of India, Shantanu Sengupta, Scientist at the CSIR-Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology (CSIR-IGIB), among the corresponding authors of the study, told The Hindu. “This is a first of its kind longitudinal study anywhere in the world in that we are tracking a cohort over time and will continue to do so. Some of the associations, of smoking and vegetarianism, are significant but we can now only speculate on why this is so but we don’t yet have a cause,” he said in a phone conversation.
Tamil Nadu
States fall short in meeting COVID-19 vaccination targets
With State governments reporting shortfalls in meeting their COVID-19 vaccination targets, the experience of the last couple of days has made one thing clear — uptake of the vaccines against COVID-19 in the first phase among healthcare and frontline workers is uneven.
Health authorities in various States cite a “wait and watch” approach as the main reason. With the vaccination itself being voluntary, it is estimated that people are waiting to see how those who have already received the vaccine fared. What is also clear now is vaccine hesitancy even among medical professionals. In some districts in the country, the Covishield vaccine was dispensed much faster than Covaxin, district-level figures show. Technical glitches in the CoWIN app were also blamed for poor vaccine coverage.
Tamil Nadu recorded just over 16% coverage on January 16, the first day. Health secretary J. Radhakrishnan acknowledged that there seemed to be a “wait and watch” trend. “We are continuing with the vaccination even if there is sluggish uptake. Some associations of health professionals have promised to come for vaccination after one or two days. We expect the response to improve after the weekend,” he said.
New Delhi
Delhi schools reopen after 10 months
For the first time since March 19, 2020, schools reopened in the national capital and students walked the corridors again with their classmates, albeit following social distancing norms and a host of other protocols that have been set by the Directorate of Education (DoE) to ensure a safe environment for classes to resume.
Students of Class 10 and 12 have been allowed to attend classes in schools so that they are able to complete their practicals, project work and counselling requirements ahead of the CBSE examinations that will be conducted between May 4 and June 10.
The government has reiterated that physical attendance is not compulsory and students would attend schools only with the consent of their parents. The schools have to be outside the containment zones to be able to function.
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