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Agencies:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16

New Delhi
January 14, 2021

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the rollout of India's COVID-19 vaccination programme on January 16, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

He 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, according to sources.

Modi is also likely to launch the Co-WIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network) App, a digital platform created for real time monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine delivery and distribution, they said.

The Health Ministry 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 immunization exercise. Therefore, it has been decided by the Ministry of Health in consultation with the office of the President of India to reschedule the Polio vaccination day, also known as the National Immunization Day (NID) or 'Polio Ravivar' to 31st January."

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 the authorities in those 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 sources said.

Officials at New Delhi's AIIMS and Safdarjung hospitals, which are among the shortlisted facilities, said they are "ready for a two way communication".

Around three lakh healthcare workers will get vaccine shots at 2,934 sites across the country on the first day of the massive nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, a senior official said.