BMJ British Medical Journal
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Covid-19: WHO says rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine should continue, as Europe divides over safety
BMJ 2021; 372 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n728 (Published 16 March 2021)
Cite this as: BMJ 2021;372:n728
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Re: Covid-19: WHO says rollout of AstraZeneca vaccine should continue, as Europe divides over safety
Dear Editor
COVID-19 Vaccination in India
As of now, 19.03.2021, more than 1.6% (122,649,897 million) of the world population have been infected with COVID-19 with more than 2.7 million deaths.
Vaccination remains a main tool to help to prevent the further COVID-19 related illness and death and to control the Pandemic.
India, the second most populous country in the world, has administered more than 39.3 (39,339,817) million vaccines till 18th March 2021.
India began its COVID-19 vaccination programme on January 16, 2021, covering healthcare workers in the first phase. In early February, the vaccination programme was expanded to include frontline workers. In the ongoing second phase, which began on March 1, 2021, people aged above 60 years and those above 45 years of age with co-morbidities are being vaccinated.
Oxford University-AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin are being used for the Indian vaccination programme.
India backs AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine, will continue to use it in COVID-19 immunization program.
As of 17th March 2021 more than 27 million doses of Covishield vaccine (AstraZeneca vaccine by Serum institute of India) have been administered in India
The AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (including Covishield) continues to have a positive benefit-risk profile, with tremendous potential to prevent COVID-19 infections and reduce the COVID-19 related deaths across the world including in India.
As of 18.03.2021, in the global list of total number of COVID-19 cases, India is in third place after the USA and Brazil with 11,513,945 cases, and in the global total COVID-19 related death list, India is in fourth place after the USA, Brazil, Mexico with 159,405 deaths.
Competing interests: No competing interests
19 March 2021
M.A. Aleem
Emeritus Professor of Neurology * Visiting Specialist in Neurology ** Consultant Neurologist ***
The Tamilnadu Dr.M.G.R. Medical University * Dhanalakshami Srinivasan Medical College ** ABC Hospital ***
Chennai 600032* Perambalure 621212** Trichy 620018*** Tamilnadu India
@drmaaleem
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