AMN / NEW DELHI
Vaccination drive for COVID 19 will kick off on 16th January across India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on Saturday to review the status of COVID-19 in the country along with the preparedness of the States and UTs for COVID vaccination. The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, Health Secretary, and other senior officials concerned.
The Prime Minister 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 and immunogenicity.
The Prime Minister was also briefed about the preparedness status of the Centre in close collaboration with the State and UT governments for roll out of the vaccine in the near future. The vaccination exercise is underpinned by the principles of people’s participation, utilizing experience of elections and Universal Immunization Program.
The Prime Minister was also apprised about the Co-WIN Vaccine Delivery Management System. More than 79 lakh beneficiaries have been already registered on the platform.
The roll-out of the vaccine will provide priority to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crores. They will be followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 crore. The training process of vaccinators and vaccine administrators was also detailed out during today’s meeting.
A total of 2,360 participants were trained during national level Training of Trainers which comprised state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, and development partners. 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.