India’s infections rose 16,577 in the past 24 hours to 11.06 million (Archive)
The central government said on Friday it will allow people to choose their coronavirus vaccination centers when the campaign expands next week, effectively allowing beneficiaries to choose a local vaccine or one from AstraZeneca, unlike now.
The country will stop vaccinations this weekend to update the software used to coordinate its campaign, as it prepares to expand coverage beyond the 11.5 million health and frontline workers immunized since January 16. But the inoculation campaign has progressed slower than expected due to reluctance. of healthcare and frontline workers to take the homegrown COVAXIN injection that was approved with no late-stage efficacy data.
Only 11% of vaccinated people have opted for the product developed by Bharat Biotech and the Indian Council for Medical Research. With the highest infection count in the world after the United States, the country wants to vaccinate 300 million of its 1.35 billion people by August.
The decision to give people a vaccine option now could speed up deployment, officials believe.
“The fundamental change in this phase is that citizens in the identified age groups, as well as health workers and front-line workers who have been left out of the current phase of vaccination, can select the vaccination centers of your choice, “the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.
Starting Monday, the government will begin to cover people 60 and over 45 with medical problems.
They can register through the government Co-Win 2.0 portal or enter the vaccination centers; The states will also actively mobilize the people.
Bharat Biotech has said that efficacy data from a late-stage trial in nearly 26,000 volunteers taking COVAXIN will be published soon.
The company, along with the country’s drug regulator, says COVAXIN is safe and effective, according to early and intermediate studies. More vaccines are likely to be approved for use in the world’s second-most populous country in the coming months, including Russia’s Sputnik-V and Cadila Healthcare’s ZyCov-D. Aside from vaccinating vaccinations, the initial failures at Co-Win had also slowed down the immunization campaign, forcing many states to go offline.
The software is part of a government contact tracking application “Aarogya Setu” or Health Bridge, downloaded so far by almost 170 million people.
The country’s infections rose by 16,577 in the last 24 hours to stand at 11.06 million, data from the Health Ministry show, while the death count increased by 120 to reach 156,825.
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