On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi virtually launched a nation-wide covid-19 vaccination drive. Amid this,  a newspaper clipping surfaced on social media claiming that 40 students were hospitalized soon after their inoculation of the COVID-19 vaccine in India. 

The clipping was shared by a Twitter user with the caption saying, "Soon after injected covid-19 vaccine in India." The news report seen in the image is titled, '40 students hospitalised after vaccination in Knp.'

However, in our investigation, we found this claim to be false. The incident has no connection with the recent COVID-19 vaccination in the country.  The articles seen in the image was published in 2018.

With the help of reverse image search, we found that this news clipping has been in circulation since 2018. 

On performing keyword search using the title of the article in question, we found an article published by the ‘Hindustan Times’ in November 2018. The article can be read on the ‘PressReader’ website. As per the report, the children were administered the Measles-Rubella vaccine.

The Press Information Bureau (PIB) fact-checking arm also tweeted stating that the posted newspaper clipping is old and not related to the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in India. PIB Fact check wrote, "A tweet referring to a news article is claiming that 40 students have been hospitalised after being administered with COVID19 vaccine #PIBFactCheck: This claim is #Fake. The news article exhibited is old and has no correlation with the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in India."

According to reports, the COVID-19 vaccine will be given to healthcare workers in public and private sectors, front-line workers, prioritized age groups (consisting of those aged above 50 years and the people aged less than 50 years having comorbidities); not school children. 

In conclusion, an image of a two-year-old news report titled '40 students hospitalised after vaccination in Knp' is being falsely linked to Covid-19 vaccination drive in India.