The second dry run of the COVID-19 vaccination drive was successfully completed on January 8 in 736 districts across 33 states/UTs. Following the drill, the Ministry of Health announced that the COVID-19 vaccination drive will start across India from January 16. With the second most populous country in the world getting ready to vaccinate its people, here's everything you need to know.
Healthcare and frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crore will get priority during the vaccination drive, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities, numbering around 27 crore. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also said that during this drive, priority will be given to doctors, healthcare workers and frontline workers including Safai Karamcharis. (Image: Reuters)
The government, in the first phase of vaccination, is aiming to inoculate 30 crore people from the priority groups. (Image: Reuters)
India has approved two COVID-19 vaccines for emergency use. The Drugs Controller General of India on January 3 granted restricted emergency use authorisation for Serum Institute of India’s ‘Covishield’ and Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’ vaccines. (Image: Reuters)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with chief ministers of all states via video conferencing to discuss the COVID-19 situation and coronavirus vaccination rollout. (Image: Twitter/@BJP4India)
The Health Ministry on January 11 said the total number of persons found infected with the mutant UK strain of COVID-19 is 96. As many as 16,311 new coronavirus cases were reported in a span of 24 hours, the lowest in around six-and-half months. India's COVID-19 tally rose to 1,04,66,595, while the recoveries have surged to 1,00,92,909, according to the Union Health Ministry's data updated on January 11. The death toll reached 1,51,160 with 161 more fatalities, the lowest in the last seven-and-half-months. (Image: Reuters)
Up to 29,000 cold chain points, 240 walk-in coolers, 70 walk-in freezers, 45,000 ice-lined refrigerators, 41,000 deep freezers and 300 solar refrigerators will be used. All these equipment have already reached state governments, Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health had said on December 15. (Source: AP)
The Union Health Ministry said CoWIN, the digital platform for monitoring the COVID-19 vaccine delivery, shall form the foundation and back-up of the anti-coronavirus inoculation drive in the country. The platform will be citizen-centric so that the vaccine is available anytime and anywhere. CoWIN will give permission to create a Unique Health ID for every user. After administration of both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, a QR code certificate will be generated which can be stored on the government's DigiLocker app. As of now, more than 90,000 users have been trained in more than 700 districts. (Image: Reuters)
The dry run was aimed at testing the laid-out mechanisms for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out in the health system and to assess operational feasibility of using Co-WIN application in a field environment for planning, implementation, and reporting at the block, district, and state level. About 150,000 staff in 700 districts have been specially trained, and India has held several national dry runs involving mock transportation of vaccines and dummy injections. (Image: AP)
The transportation of Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India's facility in Pune in Maharashtra is likely to start from the evening of January 11 or on January 12, sources involved in planning the logistics said on January 10. The vaccine-laden trucks will move out from the Manjari location of the SII with elaborate police security. (Source: Reuters)
Buoyed by the Emergency Use Authorisation approval from the Drug Controller General of India for its COVID-19 vaccine Covaxin, Bharat Biotech has said Phase-1 clinical trials of its new intranasal antidote for the killer virus will begin during February-March this year. "An intranasal vaccine will not only be simple to administer but reduce the use of medical consumables such as needles, syringes, etc., significantly impacting the overall cost of a vaccination drive," Krishna Ella, Chairman of Bharat Biotech had said. (Image: Reuters)
