COVID-19: 2 doses of vaccine prevents 95% deaths, says ICMR study

DELHI: During the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, two jabs of vaccine have prevented over 95 per cent of deaths among policemen, said Dr VK Paul, Member, NITI Aayog, on Friday, July 16, based on a study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The study was inferred from data on the efficiency of the COVID-19 vaccine in over one lakh police personnel in Tamil Nadu. 

He added that over 67 lakh policemen had received the two doses of the vaccine, 32,700 received a single jab and 17,000 were not vaccinated, at the press conference in New Delhi. 20 of the 17,000 policemen who were not vaccinated died of coronavirus, seven deaths were recorded amongst those who were vaccinated only once, and out of the 67 lakh personnel, only four died. He concluded that the two doses of vaccine lower the mortality rate to 0.06 per cent and that it has successfully prevented 95 per cent of deaths in the police force. 

Commenting on the third wave, Dr Paul said that the coming months will be very critical. He also reassured that in the next three to four months, the immunization drive will lead India into a ‘safe zone’. Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, commented that it is not the wave but its intensity that we should focus on that is directly related to our vaccination drive and our seriousness in regards to the pandemic. 

Mentioning the daily caseload, Agarwal said that the numbers are in a constant decline since May 11 as the tally dropped from 3,87,029 to 40,336 on July 16. The number of active cases has also dropped to 4.30 lakh from 37.45 lakh in the aforementioned time