Ahead Of Vaccine Rollout, PM Modi To Meet Chief Ministers Today

As India readies for inoculation drive on January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with the chief ministers of all states today to take stock of the Covid-19 situation and vaccination rollout. This will be PM Modi's first interaction with the chief ministers since the two vaccines -- Covaxin and Covishield -- received nod by India's drug regulator for emergency use.

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India is preparing to vaccinate its population against Covid-19 and has already conducted two dry runs across various states.

According to the government statement, nearly 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers will be given priority in Covid-19 vaccination drive. This will include around one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline staff, like doctors, community health workers and police, who are directly involved in fighting the pandemic. 

The government will use an integrated app, called the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) for administering the nationwide inoculation drive.

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The digital ecosystem has not been launched as of now. But, it will require Aadhaar numbers to authenticate vaccine beneficiaries and send text messages -- in at least 12 languages -- with details of vaccination date and time. 

Once the app is launched for the general public, there will be three registration options -- self, individual (an official will help in uploading data) and bulk upload.

India's drugs regulator has approved Oxford vaccine Covishield, being manufactured by the Serum Institute, and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.

With PTI inputs