NEW DELHI, Jan 5: The mass immunization programme in India against Covid-19 is expected to begin by mid-January.
The union health ministry on Tuesday said based on the feedback of the country-wide dry run of vaccination programme, the central government was ready to roll out vaccine within 10 days from the Sunday, January 3, when the rug Controller General of India gave emergency use authorization to two vaccines, Covishield being manufactured by the Serum Institute of India under license from Oxford-AstraZeneca and Covaxin indigenously developed by Bharat Biotech.
The nation-wide dry run to find out the administrative lacunae in running the immunization programme was carried out on January 2.
The centre had told the two vaccine manufacturers earlier to prepare to ship “a significant amount” of doses to over 30 vaccination hubs in the country. In the first phase, India plans to vaccinate over 30 crore priority citizens — healthcare workers, people with comorbidities & people above the age of 50 which is expected to be completed by July or August.
The health ministry also pointed out that the daily positivity rate of Covid-19 is continuously declining and has been less than 3 per cent from December 23 onwards. It said the overall burden on healthcare infrastructure in country on account of COVID-19 has also declined appreciably.
Meanwhile, the Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said the state government would seek some clarifications from the Centre on the two COVID-19 vaccines approved for the restricted emergency use before launching a mass inoculation drive in the state.
He said cold storage facilities and supply chains were being set up in Maharashtra and the state was ready to launch the mass vaccination. But there were some “clarifications we are seeking from the Centre about the approved vaccines, as they have been cleared for use citing the emergency situation. Maharashtra will raise its concerns about the vaccines during national video conference with Union health minister scheduled on January 7,” Tope said.
(Manas Dasgupta)