As India is poised to undertake the world’s ‘biggest vaccination drive’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers on Monday afternoon, wherein all states will share the details of preparations made for the planned vaccination and other issues.
The Prime Minister will chair the meeting slated to begin at 4 pm. He will be apprised by the CMs on the roll-out of coronavirus vaccine as well as the COVID-19 situation in their respective states.
The digital meet would be significant, coming ahead of the roll-out of two COVID-19 vaccines from January 16.
It is the first interaction between Modi and the CMs after the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) gave restricted, emergency-use approval to two vaccines – Oxford Astrazeneca’s vaccine ‘Covishield’, manufactured in India by Pune’s Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’.
The PM has spoken at least six times with the Chief Ministers through videoconference following COVID-19 outbreak in the country at the beginning of 2020.
Three rounds of the dry run of the immunisation drive have so far been conducted across the country. There is still a week’s time to improve on the weak areas identified during these drills.
Under India’s vaccination drive, one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers would be inoculated in the first phase. The Centre plans to also vaccinate 27 crore other persons who are at a greater risk of contracting the virus.
PM-CARES ((Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) Fund may be used to purchase the vaccines. The government had earlier allocated Rs 100 crore from the fund for the development of vaccines.
Meanwhile, training for the vaccination drive has been almost done in all states and doctors, nurses and pharmacists are ready to vaccinate the beneficiaries.
As per the plan, around five vaccine officers would be deployed at each vaccination centre — one to check registration status of beneficiaries, another to verify documents, and three others to manage crowds and do other necessary works.
On January 3, intramuscular vaccines ‘Covaxin’ and ‘Covishield’ were approved for restricted emergency use in India. Both are two-dose vaccines.
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