NEW DELHI: The vaccination drive against Covid-19 will be rolled out on January 16, the Centre announced on Saturday following a review of the preparedness of the exercise by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“After the detailed review, it was decided that in view of the forthcoming festivals, including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc., the Covid-19 vaccination will start from January 16,” the union ministry of health and family welfare said in a statement.
The government said the PM took a detailed and comprehensive review of the status of Covid management covering various issues. The Drug Controller General of India recently granted restricted emergency use or accelerated approval for two vaccines, Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech, which he said have established safety and immunogenicity.
As the inoculation drive is launched, the first prioritised group will include healthcare workers and frontline workers, who are estimated to be around 3 crore, followed by those above 50 years and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities, numbering around 27 crore.
The vaccination exercise is underpinned by the principles of people’s participation, utilizing experience of elections and universal immunization program, no compromise of existing healthcare services, especially national programs and primary health care,. So far, nearly 97 lakh beneficiaries have been registered on the CoWIN vaccine delivery management system that is being touted as a crucial technological tool to drive the exercise.
As per the details shared 2,360 vaccine administrators were trained during national level training of trainers, which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners. Also, 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 training at states, districts and block levels.
MP police probe death of vaccine volunteer
The Bhopal police have begun a probe into the death of a 45-yearold daily wage labourer, days after he participated in Bharat Biotech’s Covid-19 vaccine trial although the post mortem had report said he died of poisoning. The daily wager had participated in the trial on December 12
Kejriwal seeks free vaccine for all citizens
CM Arvind Kejriwal appealed to the Centre to provide free vaccine to everyone. Delhi government has already announced that the vaccine, whenever it is available, will be provided free to people in the city. “Coronavirus is the century’s biggest pandemic. It is important to protect our people.”