Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday will kick off the world’s largest Covid-19 vaccination campaign in India with two domestically manufactured vaccines that have been given emergency approval, keeping the pandemic in view.
As per the Health Ministry plans, Modi will virtually launch the vaccination drive that would see close to 3-lakh healthcare workers across the country getting the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine against the highly-infectious SARS-CoV2 virus. The Ministry said, as many as 3,006 vaccine session sites — each inoculating around 100 beneficiaries each — would be in operation on the first day. The number of sites would be ramped up subsequently to cover more people.
India, which has so far reported over 1.05-crore confirmed Covid-19 cases, is rolling out its vaccines at a time when only 2 per cent of the total confirmed cases is infected. On Friday, nearly 15,590 persons tested positive, while close to 16,000 recovered from the infection. So far, Covid-19 has killed 1,51,918 people in the country.
As part of the preparations, vaccine shots have been delivered to the States and Union Territories a couple of days in advance, giving them ample time to cold-chain points from where the last mile delivery would happen. States have already made elaborate security arrangements for safe-keeping of the vaccine shots.
Each vaccine site would be a permanent or temporary structure with at least three rooms. While beneficiaries would be allowed to wait in the first room, where their identities would be checked using any one of the 12 government-recognised ID cards, they would be vaccinated in the second room. The third, an observation room, is where those receiving the vaccine shot would be compulsorily observed for at least 30 minutes. If any beneficiary shows adverse reaction to the immunisation (AEFI), he or she would be transferred to a dedicated health centre for treatment.
Details on Co-WIN network
The government has re-purposed its electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network, used normally for routine immunisation programme, for Covid vaccination management. This Co-WIN network has already been fed in with details of the beneficiaries who would be inoculated in the initial leg of the vaccination. The government has plans to vaccinate 1- crore healthcare workers and 2-crore frontline Corona warriors such as sanitation workers, police and armed personnel.
Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan have already carried out last-minute checks on the system and the preparedness.