This is the first time the government has officially spoken of a timetable for the launch of the long-awaited vaccination campaign against the pandemic. The medicines regulator announced the granting of an emergency restricted use authorization to two companies: the Pune-based Serum Institute of India for Covishield, the vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and Astra Zenecaand based in Hyderabad Bharat Biotech developed by Covaxin in collaboration with the Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR).
The vaccination campaign will begin simultaneously across the country to initially inoculate three million frontline and healthcare workers. The government has already uploaded data related to these recipients to Co-WIN, the IT platform that will be used widely to implement the Covid-19 immunization program.
“Since this is a massive database of healthcare and frontline workers, it has already been pre-populated in Co-WIN and these recipients do not need to register themselves for vaccination. However, priority groups will have to register, as that dataset would require editing, ”said Bhushan.
Explaining the vaccine delivery process, Bhushan said the vaccine will soon be airlifted by manufacturers to four main vaccine warehouses or depots located in different regions: Karnal, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata. The vaccines will travel in refrigerated vans to reach 37 state vaccine stores.
States and UTs will also supply vaccines to district stores and then to primary health centers and sub-centers that are the actual vaccination sites in public and private hospitals, clinics, and CHCs. The entire process will involve more than 29,000 cold chain points and will be closely monitored through the Co-WIN-enabled vaccine intelligence network.
Bhushan said that temperature trackers at each point in the vaccine supply chain would allow real-time information to be uploaded on the temperature being maintained at any facility or during vaccine transportation. This data will be uploaded to a central platform, which will be monitored in real time, he said.
India has also decided to extend the Co-WIN app to other countries and the government said it will actively help those who wish to use it.
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