India COVID Vaccination, Across Inda, over 1.5 lakh staff have been trained.
Nearly a year after India reported its first case of coronavirus from Kerala, the "start of the end of the pandemic", as Health Minister Harsh Vardhan described it on Friday, began this morning with Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the nationwide rollout. The government aims to vaccinate 1 crore healthcare workers and 2 crore frontline workers in the first phase.
Across the country, states have geared up for the task after three dry runs - two of them nationwide - in the last few weeks. India's Covid tally surged to 1.05 crore cases this morning with 15,158 new infections; over 1.5 lakh patients have died since the beginning of the pandemic.
In 700 districts, about 1.5 lakh staff have been trained to administer the shots and keep records. The rollout began this morning at some 3,000 sites across all states and union territories; around 100 people will be vaccinated at each session site. The World Health Organisation congratulated India on "world's largest coronavirus drive" in a series of tweets.
It's not possible to vaccinate the entire country at this point, Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said earlier.
"From healthcare workers to municipal workers -- all such people are part of priority groups. This is 3 crore in total. After that, 27 crore people will get vaccinated (in the second phase)," he had said. In the second phase, the focus will be on those above the age of 50 years and those below 50 who have co-morbidities like diabetes, hypertension and other chronic conditions.
Two vaccines have been cleared by the drug regulator DCGI - Serum Institute of India's Covishield, developed in partnership with the Oxford University and European firm AstraZeneca, and Bharat Biotech's homegrown Covaxin, developed in partnership with top medical body ICMR.
The centre and not the states will bear the cost for the first phase to vaccinate the health workers, PM Modi said on Monday after a meeting with healthcare workers.
The Covishield vaccine has been priced at Rs 200 a dose after a price agreement was arrived at with the government, sources said. Eleven million doses will be supplied to the government in the initial tranche. Earlier this week, the SII sent first batches of the doses to 13 cities; Covaxin was dispatched the next day.
The government has worked hard to counter concerns raised by health experts and the opposition about Covaxin which has not completed Phase 3 trials under which the efficacy of the drug is tested.
Four more COVID-19 vaccines -Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said Zydus Cadila, Sputnik V, Biological E and Gennova - are expected to be cleared in the coming months, the Health Ministry had said earlier this week.
Also Read: India Takes Its Shot. "Don't Fall For Rumours," Urges PM