India has so far administered the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine to close to 53 lakh beneficiaries, including 3.31 lakh vaccinated on Friday, according to the Health Ministry.
Till 6 pm on Friday, a total of 52,90,474 beneficiaries have been vaccinated in 1,04,781 sessions since January 16, the Ministry said. As many as 22 deaths have been reported among the vaccinated people, including one in the last 24 hours. The latest death was from Agra where a 77-year-old man, who was vaccinated seven days ago, died of shock. He also had a pre-existing condition of diabetes.
Apart from healthcare workers, frontline workers,too, are being given the vaccine shots since early this week. Answering a supplementary question in the Lok Sabha, the government said the third leg of the current phase of vaccination, where people above 50 years and those with co-morbidities to be inoculated, will commence next month.
The Ministry said there were a total of 27 vaccination-relates hospitalisations so far which was contrary to what was mentioned by the Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Thursday. Bhushan had said that there were 34 hospitalisations.
Pfizer withdraws EUA
Meanwhile, US pharma major Pfizer said it withdrew its application for emergency use authorisation in India. “In pursuance of the Emergency Use Authorisation of its COVID-19 vaccine, Pfizer participated in the Subject Expert Committee meeting of the Drug Regulatory Authority of India on February 3. Based on the deliberations at the meeting and our understanding of additional information that the regulator may need, the company has decided to withdraw its application at this time,” the firm said in a statement.
However, it said it would continue to engage with the authority and resubmit its approval request with additional information as it becomes available in the near future.