Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that the government plans to vaccinate some 25 million people against the new coronavirus by July next year. He said that priority will be given to health workers involved in managing COVID-19 to get vaccinated and stated that the Center will ensure the fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, once they are ready. The union health ministry has asked states to submit a list of priority groups by the end of October, particularly health workers, who will receive the vaccines.
The Center estimates that it will receive and use doses of 40 to 50 crore of the COVID-19 vaccine covering 20 to 25 crore of people by July of next year. During an interaction on social media platforms, Dr. Vardhan said that the procurement of vaccines would be done centrally and that each shipment would be tracked in real time to delivery to ensure it reaches those who need it most and that there is no black marketing. The roster of frontline healthcare workers will include physicians, nurses, paramedics, healthcare personnel, ASHA workers, surveillance officers, and many other occupational categories involved in tracking, testing, and treating patients, both government and from the private sector.
“The Center is also working on plans to develop capacities in human resources, training, supervision and others on a massive scale and estimates approximately receiving and using 400-500 million doses that will cover approximately 20-25 crore of people by July 2021. All of this is in various stages of completion, ”he said. According to him, vaccines will be distributed according to the predetermined priority and on a scheduled basis.
Sharing her views on single-dose versus double-dose vaccines, she agreed that for rapid control of a pandemic, a single-dose vaccine is desirable. “However, it is often difficult to achieve the desired levels of immune protection with a single dose. Two-dose vaccines are adequate to achieve the desired immunogenicity, since the first provides some immunological protection and the second increases it even more ”, he added.
India on Sunday recorded a total of 65.49 lakh cases with 75,829 new detections, according to data from the health ministry. The death toll crossed one lakh with 940 new deaths, bringing the total deaths to 1, 01, 782. At the same time, the number of recovered patients crossed 55 lakh with 82, 260 people discharged from medical care. The country still has 9.37 lakh of active cases. The mortality rate is 1.55% and the national recovery rate is 84.13%.
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