India’s Covid-19 Vaccination Drive Begins Today: All You Need To Know

Over 3 lakh healthcare workers are set to be inoculated on the first day of the long-awaited vaccination drive which Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan marks "probably the beginning of the end" of COVID-19.

Medics at a hospital prepare for the first round of Covid 19 vaccination. Image: (PTI)

After two mock drills, the world's largest coronavirus vaccination drive is set to begin in India today. It will be launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 10.30 am, followed by his address to the nation. The healthcare workers and frontline workers will be vaccinated during the first phase of the inoculation drive. The states have received COVID-19 vaccines and necessary guidelines to start the procedure. India granted emergency approval for two coronavirus vaccines — Covishield by the Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech. People will receive two doses of the vaccine in a gap of 28 days, according to the guidelines by the Health Ministry.

Who will receive the Covid-19 vaccine today?

The priority groups include health workers, municipality workers, the Army and disaster management, volunteers.

The government has said around 100 people will receive shots at each of the 3,006 vaccination sites in the country on Saturday. The first phase of vaccination is likely to be completed in a few month.

 

How will the vaccination drive be conducted?

Given India has a population of 130 crore people, the country is drawing on its experiences of holding elections to conduct the vaccine drive. The Ministry of Home Affairs has even requested the Election Commission (EC) to share the latest electoral roll data for Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly elections to identify people belonging to the priority groups.

The exercise will be conducted for those above the age of 18. Each site, which will function as an election booth does, will have three hard copies of the beneficiary list. These names will also be uploaded by officials to the government’s Co-Win portal — Saturday’s list was uploaded two days in advance.

Here are the guidelines issued by the Centre for vaccination

1. Covid-19 vaccine is only for 18 years and above

2. Administration of vaccine should be done separated by an interval of 14 days

3. Second dose should be of the same vaccine of which the first dose was administered. 

4. Interchanging vaccines is not allowed

Is the vaccine free?

The vaccines being administered in the first phase will be free. “The Centre will bear the expenses for vaccinating the 3 crore priority population,” PM Narendra Modi had said earlier this week.

What happens after you are vaccinated?

As people are vaccinated, their data will be uploaded in real-time on the Co-Win platform. The government plans to use Aadhaar to help identify and monitor beneficiaries.