Who Will Get Covid Vaccine First? Health Ministry Shares Blueprint For India's Vaccination Drive

Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that Centre has made all the preparations and drawn an outline to ramp up production of Covid-19 vaccine.

A medic administers Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), during the Phase- 3 trials. (Image: PTI)

New Delhi: India is reported to be in the final stages of Covid-19 vaccination drive with leading vaccine-makers such as Pfizer having applied for emergency use authorisation of the jab. Putting more lights on vaccination distribution programme, the Health Ministry on Tuesday said that soon after getting a green signal from scientists, government will launch a massive production of Coronavirus vaccine in the country. While addressing a press conference, Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that Centre has made all the preparations and drawn an outline to ramp up production of vaccine in order to make it available to each and every person in shortest possible time. Who will be on priority for Covid-19 vaccine The Health Ministry also shared recommendations by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration (NEGVAC) panel's prioritisation of the population groups for Covid-19 vaccines. It stated that the NEGVAC has recommended that around 1 crore healthcare workers should be given priority in Coronavirus vaccine drive, once its arrives. As per NEGVAC's recommendation, the distribution of Covid vaccine should be done in the manner: healthcare providers & workers in healthcare setting, personnel from state & central police, armed forces, home guards, civil defence & disaster management volunteers & municipal workers and persons above 50 years. Large scale Covid-19 vaccination drive On large-scale distribution of the vaccine, the Health Ministry informed that there are around 2.39 lack vaccinators (Auxiliary Nurse Midwife-ANM) across the country. Only 1.54 lakh ANMs to be used for COVID-19 vaccination. Covid-19 vaccination drive, the Health Ministry said, will have minimal impact on routine health services including routine immunisation. Collection of database via Co-Win mobile app Process of collecting database of health are workers has started across all States and UTs and Central Ministries. This data is being uploaded on CO-WIN software, the Health Secretary said adding that the data will be verified. He also said that the current cold chain is capable of storing an additional quantity of COVID-19 vaccine required for first 3 crore health workers and front line workers. Covid-19 vaccine emergency use authorisation update Niti Aayog member VK Paul informed reporters that currently three vaccine candidates are under consideration of the regulator for licensing. Very active consideration is going on. There is hope that early licensure is possible in respect of all of them or any one of them. Meanwhile, Health Ministry said that Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech have applied to Emergency Use Approval. PM has interacted with all vaccine manufactures and scientists. 6 vaccine candidates in clinical trial stage in India. "Some of the vaccine candidates may get licensed in the next few weeks," Bhushan said adding that the reparatory activities for the rollout of the vaccine being carried our by Central government in collaboration with States and UTs. Covid-19 India tally India's COVID-19 active caseload has fallen below 4 per cent of the total infections reported so far, while the new recoveries outnumbering the daily new cases has improved the national recovery rate to 94.59 per cent as on date, the Union Health Ministry said. The active cases have drastically declined to 3.83 lakh. The total positive cases of the country are 3,83,866 and comprise 3.96 per cent of the total caseload. A total of 39,045 new recoveries were registered in a span of 24 hours. It has led to a net decline of 12,863 cases from the total active caseload in a day. The total recovered cases have surged to 91,78,946.