India is all set to begin its vaccination drive against novel coronavirus from Saturday, that is, January 16. Ahead of the development, a statement released by Prime Minister’s Office has stated that PM Modi will inaugurate the pan-India vaccination drive against covid-19 at 10:30 am on Thursday via a video conference.
“Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will launch the pan India rollout of COVID-19 vaccination drive on 16th January, 2021 at 10:30 AM via video conferencing,” the statement said.
Around 3,000 session sites, where the vaccination will take place, across the country will be virtually connected during the inaugural event, the statement added. A total of 3006 session sites across all States and UTs will be virtually connected during the launch. Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the inaugural day,” PMO said.
India plans to inoculate around 3 crore health workers and frontline workers, people aged above 50 and those with co morbidities in the first phase.
The vaccination programme will use CO-WIN, an online digital platform that will track the information and provide the realtime updates about the status of vaccination process. It will also keep a record of people who have been vaccinated and who are yet to be vaccinated. The app has been developed by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
“A dedicated 24×7 call centre – 1075 – has also been established for addressing the queries related to COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software,” the ministry said.
“All preparations are in place to initiate the programme on the principles of Jan Bhagidari,” PMO added.
India currently has two approved vaccines against coronavirus – Covishield by Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. The supply of vaccines have started since Monday with many vials reaching to the sites. “Adequate doses of both Covishield and Covaxin have already been delivered across the country to all States/UTs with the active support of the ministry of civil aviation,” PMO said. “These have been further delivered by the State/UT governments to the districts,” it mentioned.
