PM Modi to interact with beneficiaries, vaccinators of COVID inoculation drive in Varanasi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday will interact with beneficiaries and vaccinators of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in Varanasi via videoconferencing at 1:15 pm. Taking to Twitter, PM Modi said that the world's largest vaccination drive is underway in India. "Our frontline warriors are getting vaccinated across the nation," he added. 

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PM Modi: 'I urge you all to watch'

Urging the people of the nation to watch his interaction with the beneficiaries and vaccinators in Varanasi today, PM Modi said that this interaction would give a first-hand opportunity to hear their experience as well as feedback.

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Billed as the world's largest inoculation program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first inoculate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase. In Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Modi, the COVID-19 vaccination drive started at 6 centres. The first shot of the vaccine at the Sir Sunderlal Hospital of Banaras Hindu University (BHU) centre was administered to a sanitary staff Rashid Khan.

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Amid the ongoing vaccination programme, some adverse events have been reported following inoculation. Earlier on Thursday, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan released posters prepared by the Health Ministry to address issues related to COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy. He urged people to make judicious use of these posters and make it a mass campaign. The drugs regulatory body of India has currently approved two vaccines. Pune-based Serum Institute of India has developed the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University while the Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology. 

COVID-19 outbreak in India

As the world continues to grapple with the COVID-19 outbreak, India so far has recorded over 1,06,10,883 positive cases, out of which 1,02,65,706 have successfully recovered while 1,52,869 people have succumbed to the infection. According to the latest reports shared by MoHFW, in the past 24 hours, 15,223 new cases, 19,965 fresh recoveries and 151 deaths have been reported. Currently, the total number of active Coronavirus cases in India is 1,92,308. 

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