3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Jan 24, 2021 07:48 AM IST
With this move, the government is looking at generating a goodwill, but also in instilling “vaccine confidence” among the general public, sources said.
A week after it rolled out the world’s largest immunisation drive against Covid-19, India on Saturday completed administering the first dose of the vaccine to more than 15 lakh beneficiaries in the priority groups of healthcare and frontline workers.
A total of 15,37,190 beneficiaries have been vaccinated through 27,776 vaccination sessions till 6 pm on Saturday, the health ministry said.
India’s crossing the 15-lakh mark in a week after the rollout was launched on January 16 is significantly higher than numbers in the first week across other countries: the US vaccinated 5.56 lakh, 1.37 lakh were inoculated in the UK while Russia vaccinated 52,000.
As per the official data compiled by the Health Ministry on Saturday morning, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and Telangana reported the highest cumulative vaccinations in the first week of immunisation drive.
In the first week, a total of 11 beneficiaries have been hospitalized after reporting an adverse event post immunization — 0.0007 per cent of the total vaccinations. Six deaths have been reported in the country, but the health ministry has said that “none of these deaths have been causally linked with Covid-19 vaccination”.
In the second week, the health ministry said that seven new states will also use the Bharat Biotech-ICMR vaccine — Covaxin — that is being administered in a “clinical trial mode” cleared for restricted use on the basis of only safety and immunogenicity data from phase 1 and 2 of the human clinical trials. Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and West Bengal are the new states that will administer Covaxin from next week, the health ministry said.
Currently, only 12 states were using both Covaxin and Serum Institute-manufactured Covishield. “Orientation of all Programme Managers of these 7 States was conducted today by ICMR & Health Ministry covering all aspects of implementation protocols,” said Dr Manohar Agnani, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
On Saturday, Agnani said that the Indian government also completed the two-day training of the Immunization Programme Managers of 13 countries — Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Brazil, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Morocco, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Seychelles and Sri Lanka — using Indian-manufactured vaccines.
The Health Ministry said that in the last 24 hours, one more death has been reported from Gurgaon, but the post mortem confirms it is not linked to the vaccination. “In the last 24 hours, one person aged 56 years who was a resident of Gurugram, Haryana has died. The Post-mortem confirms that Cardio-pulmonary disease was the reason for her death and it was not related to vaccination,” Agnani said. The health ministry also said that in the last 24 hours, one person, who was vaccinated on January 20, has been hospitalised at Government Hospital, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh.
As City Editor ( Delhi) at the Indian Express, Kaunain Sheriff leads city reporting with a sharp focus on accountability journalism, data-driven stories, and ground-level impact. As the National Health Editor he leads the newsroom’s in-depth coverage of pressing health issues.
He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, a definitive investigation into the accountability of one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical corporations.
Areas of Expertise
Investigative Reporting: Has deep expertise in investigative reporting spanning public health, regulatory affairs, drug safety, and the criminal justice system. His work sits at the intersection of governance, law, and accountability, with a particular focus on how regulatory failures, institutional lapses, and policy decisions affect citizens’ rights and safety.
Data Journalism: Has extensively on big data–driven investigations, including analyses of flagship government schemes and large datasets on criminal trials, uncovering systemic gaps.
Global Collaborations
Kaunain is a key contributor to major international journalistic projects:
The Implant Files: Collaborated with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) to expose global malpractices in the medical device industry.
Chinese Big-Data Investigation: Uncovered how a foreign data firm monitored thousands of prominent Indian institutions and individuals in real-time.
Awards & Recognition
His commitment to "Journalism of Courage" has been recognized with the industry's highest honors:
Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism
SOPA Award (Society of Publishers in Asia)
Red Ink Award (Mumbai Press Club)
Indian Express Excellence Awards (Triple recipient for investigations into the NSA abuse in UP, Vyapam scam, and the anti-Sikh riots).
Education: Studied Mechanical Engineering at Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Bangalore, before moving to Delhi to pursue his passion for journalism. His engineering training informs his analytical approach, enabling him to decode technical, legal, and data-heavy systems with precision.
Social media
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/kaunain-sheriff-3a00ab99
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