As India gets ready to undertake the world's 'biggest vaccination drive', Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday will hold a virtual meeting with chief ministers of all states via video conferencing to discuss the COVID-19 situation and coronavirus vaccination rollout.
"At 4 PM on Monday 11th January, PM Narendra Modi will interact with Chief Ministers of all states via video conferencing. They will discuss the COVID-19 situation and the vaccination rollout," the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had tweeted.
This comes days after COVID-19 vaccines of Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech were granted permission for restricted use in an emergency situation by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI).
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced that the coronavirus vaccination drive in the country will start from January 16. The Prime Minister had earlier chaired several meetings with chief ministers in this regard.
On January 9, he had chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of COVID-19 in the country along with the preparedness of the State/Union Territories for COVID vaccination.
The roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine will provide priority to the healthcare workers and the frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crores, followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 crores.
Meanwhile, three rounds of the dry run of the vaccination drive have so far been conducted across the country. There is still a week's time to improve on the weak areas identified during these drills.
The training for the vaccination drive has been almost done in all states and doctors, nurses, and pharmacists are ready to vaccinate the beneficiaries.
As per the plan, around five vaccine officers would be deployed at each vaccination centre -- one to check the registration status of beneficiaries, another to verify documents, and three others to manage crowds and do other necessary works.
(Inputs from ANI and IANS)
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