With the central government all set to launch national vaccination campaigns, official sources have disclosed that on the first day of the mega Phase 1 campaign at 2,934 sites across India, as many as three lakh health care staff will be inoculated.
On January 16, the Covid-19 vaccination drive is scheduled to launch.
“On the first day of January 16, around 3 lakh frontline healthcare workers will be inoculated at 2,934 sites across the country,” a government source said.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Union has instructed all states not to arrange “unreasonable vaccination numbers per site per day” so a limit of 100 beneficiaries would be protected by each vaccination session.
‘States were recommended to schedule vaccine sessions, taking into account 10% of reserve/waste doses and an average of 100 vaccines per session per day, respectively. Therefore, it is not advisable to have any unnecessary haste on the part of states to arrange excessive vaccination numbers per site per day, the Health Ministry said on Wednesday.
The Centre also reported that it has been proposed to all States and the Union Territories to raise the number of vaccination centers functioning daily in a progressive manner so that the mechanism stabilizes.
On Tuesday, the government indicated that recipients would not be able to select from the two vaccines-the ‘Covishield’ Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, produced by the Serum Institute of India (SII), and Bharat Biotech’s indigenous-developed’ Covaxin’-approved for selective emergency use in India.
More than one vaccine is being distributed in several areas around the world. But, currently, beneficiaries of vaccines do not have the option of choosing the shots in any country, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday.
First, the shots will be given to approximately 1 crore healthcare staff and approximately 2 crore frontline employees, and then to people over 50 years of age. They will be accompanied by people younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities.
In addition, for healthcare and frontline employees, the central government would cover the vaccine costs.
Both 1.65 crore doses of vaccines obtained by the Center, 1.1 crore from Covishield and 55 lakh from Covaxin, is sent to all states and UTs in proportion to their healthcare staff.
