ENSURE EVMLIKE SECURITY AT VACCINE STORAGE CENTRES: YOGI

LUCKNOW : Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday asked officials to scale up vaccine storage capacity by December 15 and ensure high security for them in “EVM-like strongrooms”, a state government statement said.

The storage space should be increased to 2.3 lakh litres, the chief minister said. He issued the directive at a dedicated meeting on the state’s Covid vaccination preparedness. The state’s current vaccine storage capacity is 90,000 litres.

He also discussed in detail the cold chain establishment that would be necessary in the state before the vaccine becomes available.

“Establish coordination with the police department for highsecurity vaccine storage areas. The security should be like the arrangements that are made for storing electronic voting machines during elections,” he said.

“Create a force of master trainers to build up trained vaccinators for the entire state. Speed up work, ensure preparedness is accomplished by December 15,” he said.

Chief secretary RK Tiwari, along with the entire state-level Covid management team of the UP government, attended the meeting.

NEW DELHI: India can see a proper recovery next year on the back of positivity and confidence due to Covid-19 vaccines, Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday, arguing that steady growth and capacity expansion in the past two months had pulled the economy out of its pandemic trough.

Speaking at the 18th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Sitharaman also defended the Centre’s controversial farm reform laws, said she is not worried about food inflation and hailed the spirit of cooperation that steers the running of the GST Council.

The finance minister’s comments came days after UK became the first country in the world to approve a vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech, with the United States and European

Union expected to grant regulatory clearances later this month to stave off a disease that has killed 1.5 million worldwide.

So far, four vaccine candidates – including one that is being manufactured in India -have declared encouraging latestage trial results. Hours before the summit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India is set to get a vaccine within weeks.

“The vaccine coming brings in a certain positivity. A vaccine efficiently delivered…will only bring in confidence among the people, both the workers, employers and also people who are engaged in some or the other economic activity,” Sitharaman said at the 18th Hindustan Times Leadership Summit.

“The vaccine will bring in optimism and positivity. With the vaccine, economic activity will get traction.”

With 2020-21 being seen as when large numbers of Indians will get inoculated, with frontline workers and vulnerable populations prioritised, the finance minister also pointed towards the importance of logistics and distribution networks. She refused to specify how much money would be set aside for Covid-19 immunisation in next year’s Union budget.

“We don’t know what will be the details which come with the vaccine. Will it be one dose or two doses? Will it be two doses with two or three weeks in between? Will two doses be sufficient? Unless we get all these details, I really cannot work towards a number.”

At the HT Summit two weeks ago, Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla had said