New Delhi: It’s official now. India is set to kick off vaccination drive against the contagious Covid-19 pandemic from January 16, 2021. Among the first lot which will get vaccinated against the virus include over 3 crore healthcare workers and the frontline workers. Next on priority list would be people above 50 years and under-50 population groups with co-morbidities, numbering around 27 cr.
This will be the world’s biggest vaccination drive, to be ever taken by any country. Prime Minister has appealed for active co-operation of citizens for making this a successful drive.
Vaccination drive to kick off on 16th Jan, 2021. Priority will be given to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers, estimated to be around 3 cr, followed by those above 50 years and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 cr: Govt of India pic.twitter.com/M4CzcBzMqf
— ANI (@ANI) January 9, 2021
Prime Minister Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of COVID-19 in the country along with the preparedness of the State/UTs for COVID vaccination, today. The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to PM, Health Secretary, and other senior officials concerned.
PM Modi took a detailed and comprehensive review of status of COVID management covering various issues. Emergency Use Authorisation or Accelerated Approval has been granted by the National Regulator for two vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) which have established safety & immunogenicity.
The roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine will provide priority to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 cr, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 cr.
As the vaccinators and vaccine administrators comprise a crucial pillar of the vaccination exercise, their training process was detailed out. 2,360 participants were trained during national level Training of Trainers which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners etc. More than 61,000 programme managers, 2 lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained so far as part of trainings at States, Districts and Block levels.
The Prime Minister was also apprised on the three phases of dry runs having been conducted across the country. The third dry run was conducted yesterday across 615 districts covering 4895 session sites in 33 States/UTs.
