Centre to bear cost of vaccinating frontline workers: Modi spells out phase one of vaccine rollout

New Delhi, January 10

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced highlights of his government’s plan to rollout vaccines for the coronavirus on Monday.

In his virtual meeting with chief ministers to discuss vaccine plans, Modi said two vaccinations that were manufactured locally had already been approved for emergency use, and that four others would be eventually rolled out as well.

The two that were approved, he claimed, were cost effective and were more suited to India’s needs.

 “Our experts have taken all precautions to provide the countrymen with effective vaccines,” he said.

His government, he said, aims at vaccinating 3 crore people in the initial stages of rollout that begins on January 16. The people to be vaccinated first are what his government refers to as “corona warriors”---frontline workers, including health workers.

However, public representatives will not come under this category, he said.

The central government will bear the costs of the first phase of vaccinating frontline workers, he said.

"India is entering a decisive phase of vaccination in the fight against COVID-19," he said. 

He claimed that vaccination process has been slow globally---only about 2.5 crore people have been inoculated so far. His government would gradually vaccinate larger groups of people in the next few months, he said.

“We aim to vaccinate 30 crore citizens in next few months,” he said.

He said India had completed dry runs in almost districts of the country.

“States must ensure no rumours regarding vaccination get spread. Social and religious groups need to be involved in this,” he said.

Drug Controller General of India, the country’s federal drug regulator, has so far approved two vaccinations --- Covishield, a vaccine jointly developed by Oxford and  British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical Astrazenenca that Pune's Serum Institute of India will manufacture for the country, and ‘Covaxin’, an indigenously developed vaccination by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research---for restricted emergency use. While the first vaccination has already completed trials and has shown an average of 70 per cent efficacy in two doses, the second one, ‘Covaxin’, is still in Phase 3 of its trials.

The drug regulator’s approval of a vaccination that is still in Phase 3 of its trials has been controversial, with experts calling the approval premature. ICMR, one of India’s apex body overseeing biomedical research in the country, has since clarified that the approval was in “clinical trial mode”---a term that many experts say they have never heard before.

--- Agencies