95% of Covid-19 deaths can be prevented by two doses vaccine: ICMR

Two vaccine doses are successful in preventing 95% of deaths caused by Covid-19, according to a recent study on vaccine effectiveness conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

The study was conducted on 1,17,524 policemen in Tamil Nadu during the second wave, which was primarily driven by the Delta variant of the novel coronavirus. The study claimed that 80% of the vaccinated Indians who got the disease were infected by the Delta variant.

Citing the study results, the Centre on Friday said that two doses of Covishield or Covaxin vaccine, primarily given at the time of the study, would prevent deaths in 95% of the COVID-19 cases.

India has so far administered 39.96 crore vaccine doses.

Dr V K Paul, member of NITI Aayog, said the government was eying a vaccine availability of around 130-140 million doses this month. “We are providing this evidence to make a point once again that our vaccines are effective and safe,” he said.

“Even pregnant and lactating women should get the shots,” Paul said, while cautioning all to use masks to prevent infections.

The study results

Of the total 1,17,524 police personnel who participated in the study conducted by ICMR, 17,059 did not receive any Covid-19 vaccine and 20 people among them died due to the disease. A total of 32,792 policemen had received only one vaccine shot and among them, seven died. The third group of 67,673 participants were vaccinated with both doses and only four deaths were reported in this group.

The study showed an incidence rate of 1.17 Covid-19 deaths per 1,000 unvaccinated people, 0.21 among partially vaccinated and 0.06 among fully vaccinated.