Covid-19 vaccination Phase 1: Around 3 lakh healthcare workers set to get vaccine shots on Day 1

14-01-2021

With the central government all set to initiate nationwide vaccination drives, official sources have revealed that as many as three lakh healthcare workers will get inoculated on the first day of the massive Phase 1 drive at 2,934 sites across India. The Covid-19 vaccination drive is set to commence on January 16. �Around 3 lakh frontline healthcare workers will be inoculated at 2,934 sites across the country on the first day of January 16,� a government source said, according to news agency. The Union Ministry for Health and Family Welfare has advised all states to not organise �unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day� as each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries. �States have been advised to organise vaccination sessions taking into account 10 per cent reserve/wastage doses and an average of 100 vaccinations per session each day. Therefore, any undue haste on the part of states to organize unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day is not advised,� the Health Ministry said on Wednesday. The Centre also said that all states and Union Territories have been advised to ramp up the number of vaccination centres that will be operational every day in a progressive method so that the process stabilises. The government had on Tuesday hinted that as of now recipients won�t get to choose from the two vaccines � the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine �Covishield�, manufactured by Serum Institute of India (SII), and indigenously-developed �Covaxin� of Bharat Biotech � approved for restricted emergency use in India. Also, the Health Ministry has clarified that getting vaccinated will be voluntary for all. �At many places in the world, more than one vaccine are being administered. But, presently, in no country vaccine recipients have the option of choosing the shots,� Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said on Tuesday. The shots will be offered first to approximately 1 crore healthcare workers, and roughly 2 crore frontline workers, and then to people above 50 years of age. They will be followed by people younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities. Furthermore, the central government will bear the cost of vaccination for healthcare and frontline workers. All 1.65 crore doses of vaccines � 1.1 crore from Covishield and 55 lakh from Covaxin � that have been procured by the Centre have been dispatched to all states and UTs in proportion to their healthcare workers.