The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has said only two to four out of 10,000 were found infected after taking both doses of the vaccine.
According to a report by Times of India, ICMR director Balram Bhargava underlined the importance of vaccination and said the data on infections in those who were fully vaccinated indicated that a very small percentage of people contracted the disease.
So far, 0.04 per cent of people have tested positive after the second dose of Covaxin and 0.03 per cent after the second dose of Covishield.
Studies have shown lesser virulence and mortality among vaccinated people. Some protection is evident even after the first dose though completion of the vaccination is important.
“This too is mostly among health and frontline workers who were vaccinated on priority but have occupational exposure and because of the intense second wave which is likely to have contributed,” Bhargava said. The data is encouraging and should go a long way in dispelling vaccine hesitancy that continues to pose hurdles to the vaccination drive. The data reflects a robust performance for both vaccines being used in India.
Separately, the Indian Council of Medical Research and Bharat Biotech released another set of interim findings from clinical trials, showing that the indigenous Covaxin is 100% effective against severe Covid — meaning that those who receive the vaccine are not going to fall seriously ill with the disease. In February, AstraZeneca had said its Covishield vaccine was 100% effective in preventing serious illness, hospitalisation and death.
Taken together, the data show that both vaccines currently in use in India offer full protection against severe disease, a heartening statistic that demonstrates that increasing vaccine coverage will quickly reduce the burden on India’s hospitals and the health care sector that is reeling due to a worrying second wave.
The government’s data on Wednesday also showed that a total of 1.1 crore people received Covaxin; 93, 56, 436 beneficiaries got just the first dose, while 4,208 (0.04%) of them turned positive after the shot. In the case of Covishield, a total of 11.6 crore people received the vaccine; 10,03,02,745 got just the first dose and 17,145 (0.02%) of them turned positive after receiving the jab.
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