The Central government has asked States to gear up with necessary arrangements to distribute the vaccine for COVID-19.
The instructions follow the progress made in the development of vaccine by different agencies which have reached the final stages of clinical trials. Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited the facilities of pharma majors engaged in the development of COVID-19 vaccine a couple of days ago. Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba conducted a video conference with Chief Secretaries of States and Union Territories as follow up of the visit on Monday.
Mr. Gauba asked the Chief Secretaries to convene the meetings of State-level steering committees before December 5 besides ensuring that the task force meetings at district, state and block levels were held around the same time. There was emphasis on strengthening the infrastructure like cold chains and transportation of vaccine for which there was need to ensure multi-sectoral coordination.
There was also need to ensure that the communication on vaccination about the various priority groups was transparent. Active cases in the country were less than 4.5 lakh at present and fatalities were also on the decline, but an effective containment strategy and adequate testing facilities for early detection of COVID-19 was imperative to minimize the spread of the virus in the community.
Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar, Director General of Police M. Mahender Reddy and senior officials attended the video conference.
