Over 20 lakh healthcare workers across the country have received COVID-19 vaccine jabs till Tuesday evening, as per provisional reports, the Union health ministry has said.

According to Health ministry data, the highest number of vaccinations in the country till now have been carried out in Karnataka at 2,31,601 followed by Odisha at 1,77,090, Rajasthan at 1,61,332 and Maharashtra at 1,36,901.

You can track coronavirus cases, deaths and testing rates at the national and State levels here. A list of State Helpline numbers is available as well.

Here are the latest updates:

 

Peru volunteer in Chinese vaccine trial dies of COVID-19 pneumonia

A volunteer in the local Peruvian trial of a coronavirus vaccine produced by China’s Sinopharm Group Co Ltd has died from COVID-19 related pneumonia, the university carrying out the trial said on Tuesday.

Cayetano Heredia University, which is involved with the study, said that it did not know if the volunteer had received the vaccine or the placebo in the double blind trial. Peru is being hit by a second wave of COVID-19 infections.

 

Rich countries hoarding COVID vaccines: Ramaphosa

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa accused rich countries of “hoarding” coronavirus vaccines.

“The rich countries of the world went out and acquired large doses of vaccines from developers and manufacturers, and some countries have even gone beyond and acquired four times what their population needs,” he said.

“There’s just no need for a country, which perhaps has 40 million people, to acquire 120 million doses or even 160 million,” the president said.

“So, we’re saying, release the excess vaccines that you’ve ordered and hoarded,” he said in a candid plea during a virtual State of the World Address at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Davos Dialogues.

 

‘People sceptical about vaccines took a shot’

A survey by LocalCircles, a community social media platform, held in the last four months, has found that though most people surveyed were sceptical, quite a few had since got vaccinated against COVID-19.

LocalCircles, which began collecting responses from people to understand their views on the vaccines, said as of January 19, 62% were hesitant to be vaccinated immediately.

The organisation found that while 36% of them had taken the vaccines or would take them, 4% said they would take the vaccines whenever they were made available in private hospitals or through other channels.