Two Doses Of Covid Vaccine 99.3% Effective In Preventing Mortality, Says Govt

Covid-19 Cases in India: There has been a decrease in the number of fatalities. In the last 24 hours, 142 people have died from COVID. At the same time, 223 people lost their lives on Wednesday. During this, 14,947 patients have also been cured of the infection.

New Delhi: The Director general of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) Balram Bhargava on Thursday said COVID-19 vaccines have proven to be safe, effective, and life-saving as vaccine’s efficacy is measured in a controlled clinical trial as reported by news agency ANI.

"Vaccine effectiveness in mortality prevention has been measured. The first dose is responsible for 98.9 % vaccine effectiveness and if both doses are given then it is 99.3 % effective," said Balram.

India's COVID-19 cases continue to decline after an average of around 11,000 COVID cases are reported every week in the country, said Union Health Ministry Joint Secretary Lav Agarwal.

"There has been a sharp surge in the number of Covid cases in many countries in the world. This notes an increasing trajectory of rising cases on a daily basis. Even today, around 15,00,000 cases are reported daily in the world," said Lav Agarwal.

He also briefed about the number of infections surging in many countries saying, "Now also across many countries, huge Covid cases are being reported. In some countries, an increase in trajectory of cases continues".

There has been a decrease in the number of fatalities. In the last 24 hours, 142 people have died from COVID. At the same time, 223 people lost their lives on Wednesday. During this, 14,947 patients have also been cured of the infection.

"There is a positive situation in number of deaths in India as compared to other countries. From Feb 2-8, India reported 615 deaths on average. In last week, 144 deaths were reported due to Covid. A decline of 76.6% from the peak of what India has seen," he added.

"Only a single state is having active cases over 10,000 & 2 states are having active cases between 5,000 to 10,000. Remaining states have less than 5,000 active cases. Kerala, Maharashtra, Mizoram accounts for 50% of active cases of the country," Luv Aggarwal said.

More than 97% of the adult population received the first dose of the vaccine. Rapidly marching towards achieving 100% first dose mark, as tweeted by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya.

In the last 24 hours, 6,561 new cases of COVID-19 have been reported in the country. However, this number is 13 percent less than yesterday. At the same time, 142 people have died due to the infection in the last 24 hours. Under the nationwide vaccination campaign, 178.02 crore vaccine doses have been administered so far. Currently, active cases in India are 77,152.

The recovery rate is currently 98.62%. In the last 24 hours, 14,947 people have been cured. With this, the number of people recovering has increased to 4,23,53,620. The daily positivity rate is 0.74%. The buy positivity rate is 0.99%. So far 77 crore COVID testing has been done. However, 7,554 new cases of COVID were reported on the last day on Wednesday morning. More than 190 countries around the world including India are affected by Coronavirus infection. So far more than 43 crore people in the world have been affected by the infection.

The Health Ministry said that out of those who have died due to virus infection so far, more than 70 percent of the patients also had other diseases.