India is scheduled to start its Covid-19 vaccination campaign on January 16, the central government announced in a press release on Saturday. In its first phase, priority will be given to around 3 million frontline workers, followed by around 27 million people over 50 and others with comorbidities. Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed this as a “historic step” in India’s fight against the virus. Prior to this, India conducted two mock vaccination campaigns to understand how best to administer vaccines and to detect any logistical gaps in their distribution.
India’s drug regulator recently approved Oxford Covishield’s COVID-19 vaccine, manufactured by the Serum Institute, and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, developed in the country, for restricted emergency use in the country. Two trials of the vaccines have also been conducted across the country to understand how best to deliver them and to fill gaps in logistics and training.
Modi praised India’s fight against COVID-19 and said that we are among the countries with the lowest death rate and the highest recovery rate. He also said that the way the country held together during the pandemic was unmatched. “As the pharmacy of the world, India has provided important medicines to all those in need in the world and continues to do so,” he said.
.
