Top News Of The Day: 51 Lakh Vaccinations So Far On Day 2 Of New Drive

Monday's vaccination drive - when nearly 88 lakh doses were administered - has demonstrated this can be done on a mass scale. But today, saw far fewer vaccinations. Only 51 lakh doses were administered by 7 pm as compared to 70 lakhs yesterday. This raises the key question - just how sustainable is the drive; as the country recovers from a deadly second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, at least three states - Maharashtra, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh - are reporting cases of a further mutated strain of the virus - the delta plus variant. Maharashtra has reported 21 cases after genome sequencing of 100 samples from each district; Bharat Biotech has submitted Phase 3 data for its indigenous Covid vaccine Covaxin to the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI). According to sources, Covaxin shows 77.8% efficacy in Phase 3 trial data and other top stories.