300k to get shots on Day 1 of vaccination
NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the rollout of the India’s coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination programme in India on January 16 with an address to the nation, the Union health ministry said on Thursday, in what will be the world’s biggest immunisation drive.
Around 300,000 health care workers will get vaccine shots at 2,934 sites across the country on the first day of the massive nationwide drive, news agency PTI quoting a senior official said.
Each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries.
Modi is likely to interact via video link with some healthcare workers from across the country who will be receiving the shots on the first day, PTI quoting unnamed officials said. He is also likely to launch the Co-WIN (Covid-19 Vaccine Intelligence Network) App, a digital platform created for real-time monitoring of Covid-19 vaccine delivery and distribution, they said.
“The massive countrywide Covid-19 vaccination drive will be rolled out by Prime Minister from January 16. This would be the world’s largest immunisation exercise,” the health ministry said in a statement.
A limited number of sites out of the 2,934 inoculation centres
have been shortlisted from where the beneficiaries can interact with the Prime Minister, and authorities in these centres have been asked to make provisions for IT infrastructure for providing a two-way interactive communication facility to enable it to link and interact with the national launch site through a video link, the officials quoted above said.
Officials at New Delhi’s All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and Safdarjung Hospitals, which are among the shortlisted facilities, said they are “ready for a two-way communication”.
According to the guidelines issued to the shortlisted vaccination centres, healthcare workers (those registered in Co-WIN to be vaccinated) on the launch shall include not only doctors, nurses but also nursing orderlies, safai karamcharis and ambulance drivers, and would be from a mixed age group, including those the age of 50.