68,26,898 people have been vaccinated till date: Govt

68,26,898 people, including 56,65,172 health care workers and 11,61,726 frontline workers, have been inoculated till date, the Union Health Ministry informed on Wednesday. Mandeep Bhandari, joint secretary in the Health Ministry, said that 13 states and UTs have recorded more than 65 per cent vaccination.

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday said that 68,26,898 people have been vaccinated in India till Wednesday.

"56,65,172 health care workers which form 57.4 per cent of the total vaccination beneficiary, 11,61,726 frontline workers which form 13.2 per cent have been vaccinated," said Mandeep Bhandari, joint secretary in the Health Ministry.

Vaccination for health care workers started from January 16 and frontline workers started from February 2.

Bhandari said that 13 states and UTs recorded more than 65 per cent vaccination where Bihar top the list with 79.4 per cent. Tripura 77.8 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 76 per cent, Odisha 73.9 per cent among others.

He also said that seven states recorded less than 40 per cent vaccination that includes Punjab 35.3 per cent, Meghalaya 30.8 per cent, Chandigarh 30.7 per cent. Tamil Nadu 30.4 per cent, Manipur 26.5 per cent, Nagaland 22.6 per cent and Puducherry recorded 17.5 per cent vaccination.

He said that 30 hospitalization cases took place following vaccination. "19 of them have already discharged after treatment, two persons are still undergoing treatment and 9 deaths took place," said Bhandari.

"A total of 23 deaths took place ever since the vaccination process started."

"However, no death is attributable to vaccination till date," he said.

Meanwhile, no decision has been made regarding free vaccination for the people above 50 years of age even as the government is all set to roll out the vaccination process for 27 crore prioritised people from March.

Addressing a webinar on building public confidence on vaccination, Paul who is the chairperson of Covid-19 task force said that the government is yet to decide whether the 27 crore prioritised people above 50 years of age will receive doses free of costs or not.

The government has given Covid-19 vaccine free of cost to three crore health care and frontline workers.

Paul said that apart from giving vaccines to first 3 crore people, as they are frontline workers, 27 crore people above 50 years of age with co-morbidities, have been prioritised.

He informed that of the total fatalities caused by Covid19, 78 per cent falls in the age group of 50 years and above.