India’s Corona Vaccination Drive Begins Today

India's vaccination drive against the Covid-19 will be digitally launched by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday as about 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at more than 3,000 sessions across the country, the government has said.

The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has said that for the world's largest vaccination program, sufficient doses of the two made-in-India shots have been sent to all states and Union territories, reports the Hindustan Times. 

“This vaccination programme is based on the principles of priority groups to be vaccinated and Health Care workers, both in government and private sectors including ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers, will receive the vaccine during this phase,” the PMO said in a statement on Thursday.

The Oxford University-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, which has been manufatured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) and marketed as Covishield and Bharat Biotech's indigenous-developed Covaxin for restricted emergency use in the country earlier this month, was authorised by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).

Here’s what you need to know about India’s vaccination drive:

Prime Minister Modi will launch the pan-India rollout of the Covid-19 vaccination drive at 10:30 am through video conferencing, the PMO said.

Across all states and UTs, there are 3,006 session sites and during the launch they will be digitally connected. At least 60 hospitals across the country have been directed to plan for video conferencing facilities, including the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi.

Reports said that PM Modi is likely to interact with some healthcare workers from across the country who will be receiving the Covid-19 shots on the first day. The Centre will bear the cost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers.

Vaccination of health care and frontline workers will be held at a wide range of public health care facilities, from hospitals to primary health centres in rural India and large private hospitals.

Healthcare will include doctors, nurses, technicians, lab workers, including ICDS workers. Frontline workers will be personnel from state and central police department, armed forces, home guard, prison staff, disaster management volunteers and civil defence organisation, municipal workers and revenue officials engaged in Covid-19 containment, surveillance and associated activities.

The Centre has said that the shots will be offered first to an estimated 10 million healthcare workers, and around 20 million frontline workers, and then to those above 50 years of age, followed by those younger than 50 years of age with comorbidities.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced that the complete initial procurement of 16.5 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, has been allocated to all states and UTs in proportion to their database of healthcare staff.

According to the Union Health Ministry, states and UTs has been advised to use a maximum of 10 days per fortnight for the Covid-19 vaccination.

They have also have been advised by the Union health ministry to organise vaccination sessions taking into account 10% reserve/wastage doses and an average of 100 vaccinations per session per day.

The Ministry had said on Wednesday that any unnecessary haste on the parts of the states to arrange excessive vaccination numbers per site per day is not advised.

The states and UTs were also advised to progressively raise the number of sites for vaccination sessions that will be operational every day as the vaccination process stabilizes and progresses.

The vaccination programme 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 individualised tracking of beneficiaries.

Co-WIN will assist programme managers across all levels while conducting vaccination sessions, the PMO said.

In order to answer the queries related to the coronavirus pandemic, vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software, a dedicated 24x7 call center 1075 was also created.

The vaccine campaign will take place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on a regular basis, with the exception of the days assigned to the routine immunisation programme.