92% Covid Deaths in 2022 Due to Lack of Vaccinations in India: ICMR

Emphasising on vaccine effectiveness in mortality prevention, the Indian Council of Medical Research on Thursday revealed that 92 per cent of Covid deaths so far this year have been due to unvaccinated individuals.

At a press briefing on current Covid situation in the country, the ICMR Director General, Dr Balram Bhargava, said that the first dose is responsible for 98.9 per cent vaccine effectiveness, and if both doses are given, then it is 99.3 per cent effective.

He said that vaccines development, deployment, and impact have been scientifically measured, adding that India is the second country which is having a vaccine tracker.

About the vaccine development, he said that two different approaches – leveraging India’s scientific prowess and leveraging international sciences – were undertaken. Elaborating on the first, he said that research and development, product development, and large clinical trials were undertaken to develop two indigenous vaccines – one a whole virus vaccine and second a DNA vaccine, resulting into Covaxin and ZyCoV-D.

“Under the second approach, we had technology transfer, bridging studies, and augment Production which resulted into the development of four vaccines – Covishield, Covovax, Corbevax and Sputnik V,” Dr Bhargava said.

About Covaxin’s development, the ICMR chief said that preclinical studies were done on small animals like monkeys to establish the safety, immunity and dosage of vaccines.

About vaccine effectiveness, he said that the impact has been measured and shows high vaccination has reduced morbidity and mortality.

The National Database which combines three databases – CoWIN, ICMR Testing and India Portal Database has data of total 94,47,09,598 individuals. Among them 15,39,37,796 are partially vaccinated, 73,98,46,222 are fully vaccinated and 5,09,25,580 are still unvaccinated, he said.

India experienced considerably lower numbers of deaths due to vaccine deployment, vaccine acceptance and wide scale coverage, he added.

“It is evident that vaccines and the wide vaccination coverage have played a very important role in protecting hundreds of lives. The vaccine has protected the nation from a surge in the number of Covid cases,” said Dr V.K. Paul, Member, Health, NITI Aayog in the press briefing.

(With inputs from agencies)

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