NEW DELHI: The much-awaited
Covid-19 vaccination drive will kick off on January 16.
The date for rollout of the
vaccine was decided at a high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Modi to review the status of Covid-19 in the country and the preparedness of states/UTs for the vaccination drive.
The first to get the vaccine will be the healthcare workers and the frontline workers, who are estimated to be around 3 crores in number.
The second group to get vaccination will be those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 crore.
Emergency Use Authorisation or Accelerated Approval has been granted by the National Regulator for two vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) which have established safety & immunogenicity.
The vaccination exercise will be guided by the principles of people’s participation (Jan Bhagidari); utilizing experience of elections (booth strategy) and Universal Immunization Program (UIP). There will be no compromise of existing healthcare services, especially national programs and primary health care; no compromise on scientific and regulatory norms, other SOPs. Technology will be used for an orderly and smooth implementation of the roll out.
The Prime Minister was also apprised about the Co-WIN Vaccine Delivery Management System. The unique digital platform will provide real time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries of the Covid-19 vaccine.
This platform will assist the program managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification and for generating a digital certificate upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule.
More than 79 lakh beneficiaries have been already registered on the platform.