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Beginning of end of Covid-19: Vaccination drive under way across India, 3cr to be inoculated in phase 1

In the first phase government and private-sector health care workers including Integrated Child Development Services(ICDS) workers, will receive the vaccine in the first phase.

Beginning of end of Covid-19 LIVE UPDATES: Vaccination drive under way across India, 3cr to be inoculated in phase 1

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched India’s vaccination drive against the novel coronavirus via video conferencing.

Billed as the world’s largest vaccination program, covering the entire length and breadth of the country, the drive aims to first inoculate millions of its healthcare and frontline workers and reach an estimated 3 crore people by the end of its first phase.

A total of 3006 session sites across all states and union territories will be virtually connected during the launch. Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the inaugural day, the union health ministry has said.

Watch what PM Modi said:

In the first phase government and private-sector health care workers including Integrated Child Development Services(ICDS) workers, will receive the vaccine in the first phase. The Centre has planned to vaccinate around 3 lakh healthcare workers at 2,934 session sites on the first day of the inoculation drive.

The drive will be held daily from 9 am to 5 pm, except on the days earmarked for routine immunisation programmes.

LIVE UPDATES:

# This disease kept people away from their families. The mothers cried for their children & had to stay away. People could not meet their elderly admitted at hospitals. We could not bid adieu to those with proper rituals who died due to corona: PM Modi

# Today when we take a look at the last year, we realise that we have learnt a lot as a person, a family and as a nation: PM Narendra Modi

# Such a vaccination drive at such a massive scale was never conducted in history. There are over 100 countries having less than 3 crore population & India is administering vaccination to 3 crore people in first phase only. In second phase, we’ve to take this number to 30 crores: PM Narendra Modi

# I request you not to make the mistake of taking off the mask and not maintaining social distancing after getting the first dose because immunity develops after the second dose: PM Narendra Modi

# I want to remind people of the country that two doses of the Corona vaccine are very important. Experts have said that there should be a gap of one month between both vaccinations: PM Narendra Modi

# Normally, it takes many years to make a vaccine but in such a short span of time, not one, but two ‘Made in India’ vaccines are ready. Meanwhile, the work on other vaccines is progressing at a fast pace: PM Narendra Modi

Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Friday termed the country’s vaccination drive as the “beginning of the end of Covid-19.” He also urged people to trust the indigenously manufactured vaccine, saying the government has given emergency use approval after proper scientific scrutiny.

India closer to Covid-19 vaccine, Drug Controller hints for approval

The central government has introduced an application named CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Work) to monitor the entire vaccination process.

In the next phases of the vaccination drive, people aged over 50 will be vaccinated and those who are below 50 years but have serious health conditions or co-morbidities, according to the health ministry.

There has been dry-runs at vaccination centres across the country with lakhs of healthcare staff across districts trained.

The drugs regulatory body of India has currently approved two vaccines. Pune-based Serum Institute of India has developed the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University. while the Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad’s Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.

The vaccination programme in the country will use Co-WIN, an online digital platform developed by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which will facilitate real time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine. This digital platform will assist programme managers across all levels while conducting vaccination sessions.