A senior Health Ministry official said Tuesday that if India had a vaccine today, the government would be ready to vaccinate at least 3 million people instantly.
File image for representation: Reuters
If India had a vaccine today, the government would be ready to vaccinate at least 3 million people instantly, a senior Health Ministry official said Tuesday.
“We have a rough estimate of around 3 crore of people who have been identified to be vaccinated in the first tranche. This would include around 70 to 80 crore of doctors and around 2 crore of healthcare workers.” sources from the Ministry of Health said.
The committee of vaccine experts has been working on a draft plan prioritizing the number of people to be vaccinated as soon as a vaccine is ready to fight the coronavirus. The 2 million frontline workers include central and state police forces, domestic guards, armed forces, municipal workers and Asha workers, and community workers, such as cleaners, teachers and drivers.
During a press conference on Covid-19, Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said: “The vaccine expert committee has been working on a draft plan prioritizing the number of people to be vaccinated with the number of doses of vaccine that will be available from the beginning of January-July of next year “.
“If the current trials are successful, we will move forward with the prioritization list of those that are being identified,” he said.
The national group of experts in vaccine administration for Covid-19 has worked on the inputs received by central agencies and states.
The group, led by Niti Aayog Fellow Dr. VK Paul and co-chaired by Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, has studied the allocations for early-phase vaccines proposed by the CDC, Atlanta, and WHO, while charting India’s framework for equitable and needs-based access.
In India, the universal immunization program has been used to vaccinate the population of India. India also has 28,000 cold rooms to track and store vaccines and increasing this capacity is ongoing, the Health Ministry said.
