Coronavirus Vaccines to Our Countrymen in Next Few Days, Says Health Minister

New Delhi: In the next few days, we should be able to give coronavirus vaccine to our countrymen prioritising those who are at risk in public and private sectors, said Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday.  While reviewing the second dry run of the coronavirus vaccination exercise at the Government General Hospital in Chennai, the health minister asserted that the Centre has started a new COVID platform to track particulars of potential vaccine beneficiaries and also issue electronic certificates to them. “Soon it would be a reality to vaccinate the entire population in the country against COVID-19”, he stated.

“We started the preparation for the impending vaccine drive against COVID four or five months ago after prime minister Modi constituted the national expert group for vaccination. We worked all the minute details and shared the information with those at grassroot level. In the process, several lakhs of health workers were trained adequately,” he said.

Furthermore, he added, “Earlier, the government used to track the vaccine in terms of the temperature it was stored. Now we started the new COVID platform in tracking the details of potential beneficiaries, places where they are likely to get the shots, pre and post vaccination including giving an electronic certificate and follow it up with the second dose with detailed text messages and reminders.”

The details of this 150-page document has been shared with all stakeholders to make the vaccination drive successful, he said.

Meanwhile, the second nationwide dry run on the Covid 19 vaccination is underway. The massive mock drill is being conducted in 736 districts across 33 states and Union Territories. The first dry run for COVID-19 vaccination roll-out was held on January 2 at 285 session sites spread across 125 districts to assess the ability and readiness of authorities to administer shots to hundreds of millions of people, including many in remote corners of the country.

Earlier on Sunday, the country’s drugs regulator had approved Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and the indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.