P rime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting on Monday with Chief Ministers and administrators of all states and Union Territories to review the status and preparedness for Covid vaccination.
“From 16 January, we are starting the world’s largest vaccination programme. Around 30 million healthcare workers and frontline workers will be vaccinated in the first phase. In the second phase, those above 50 years and those under 50 years with co-morbid conditions will be given shots,” said the PM. The Prime Minister also said that the cost of the first phase of vaccination involving health and frontline workers will be borne by the Centre and not the states.
“Health workers—government as well as private—will be vaccinated first. Sanitation workers, other frontline workers, defence forces, Police and other paramilitary forces will also be vaccinated in the first phase,” he added. PM Modi also sent a strong message to the political class when he stressed in the meeting that politicians shouldn’t jump the queue and take the vaccine out of their turn.
During the meeting, PM Modi said that “only about 2.5 crore people have been vaccinated globally so far; we have to achieve vaccination of 30 crore citizens in next few months.”
He also urged the citizens of the country to keep taking precautions even after the vaccine has been taken. He also added that the most important factor in the vaccination drive is identification and monitoring of those who need to be vaccinated. For this, Co-Win digital platform has been created. With the help of Aadhaar, beneficiaries will be identified as well as timely second dosage will be ensured. PM Modi further emphasised that all states and UTs will have to put in place mechanisms to keep rumours related to vaccination in check.
The CMs expressed happiness at the rollout of vaccination. They discussed some issues and concerns about vaccines, which were clarified in the meeting. India’s drugs regulator recently approved two vaccines: Oxford-AztraZeneca’s Covishield and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.
In the meantime, the Serum Institute of India (SII) on Monday received a purchase order from the government for 11 million doses of Covishield vaccine. “We have received the (purchase) order from the Government of India on Monday afternoon,” a senior SII official said, adding that the vaccine would be available at the price of Rs 200 per dose, including GST.