India’s COVID-19 vaccination drive in numbers

A medic demonstrates administration of COVAXIN, an Indian government-backed experimental COVID-19 vaccine, to a health worker during its trials, at the Urban Primary Health Centre at Tezpur in Assam. (Image: PTI)

India is all set to embark on one of the world’s largest vaccination drives starting on January 16, which will vaccinate approximately 300 million people (more than the population of Indonesia or almost that of the United States) on priority against the novel coronavirus disease.

On January 3, India had granted restricted emergency use authorization to 2 vaccines--the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

In the first phase, the government will target approximately 10 million health and 20 million frontline workers, according to COVID-19 Vaccines Operational Guidelines released by the ministry of health and family welfare. While the remaining (approximately 260 + 10 million) will be prioritized age group: (population ≥50 years of age) and <50 years with associated comorbid conditions.

An individual will need to take 2 doses of vaccine 3-4 weeks apart to complete the vaccination schedule. The Serum Institute of India has signed a purchase order with the Indian government to procure 11 million doses of vaccines. A single dose of the COVID-19 vaccine will cost Rs 220 inclusive of 14 percent GST.

While Bharat Biotech is to provide 55 lakh Covaxin doses at Rs 295 per dose. The pharma entity will be providing its coronavirus vaccine to 12 states directly, with the process being completed by January 14.

The cost for vaccinating three crore frontline workers will be borne from the PM CARES Fund, reports based on sources indicate.

According to the government’s guidelines, each vaccination session would be planned for 100 beneficiaries per day. “If the session site has adequate logistics and space available for the waiting room and observation room along with arrangement for crowd management, one more vaccinator can be added to create a session for 200 beneficiaries.” All sessions will be conducted from 9 am to 5 pm.

For the vaccination drive, India’s cold chain system consists of over 85,000 storage equipment at about 28,932 cold chain points across the country.

About 23 different ministries/departments are to be involved in the support, planning, and implementation of the vaccine rollout.

With regards to manpower, 1.54 lakh auxiliary nurse midwives will be used for COVID-19 vaccination with arrangements for additional vaccinators being made in collaboration with states, the government had said in December 2020, in regards to preparatory activities for the vaccine rollout.

More than 61,000 programme managers, 2 lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained as part of training at states, districts, and block levels, an official release from the government on January 9, said.

Another 2,360 participants were trained during the national-level training of trainers consisting of state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners.

The Indian Medical Association has requested its 3.5 lakh members in 1,800 local branches to “voluntarily come out to get vaccinated first” to show the world that these vaccines are “safe and efficacious.”

Over 28.15 million COVID-19 vaccination doses have been administered or have been given across several countries as of January 11, 2021.