PM to meet CMs today on vaccine rollout, corona situation

New Delhi, Jan. 10 (IANS): As India is poised to undertake the world’s ‘biggest vaccination drive’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers on Monday afternoon, wherein all states will share the details of preparations made for the planned vaccination and other issues.

The Prime Minister will chair the meeting slated to begin at 4 pm. He will be apprised by the CMs on the roll-out of coronavirus vaccine as well as the Covid-19 situation in their respective states.

The digital meet would be significant, coming ahead of the roll-out of two Covid-19 vaccines from January 16.

It is the first interaction between Modi and the CMs after the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) gave restricted, emergency-use approval to two vaccines – Oxford Astrazeneca’s vaccine ‘Covishield’, manufactured in India by Pune’s Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’.

The PM has spoken at least six times with the Chief Ministers through videoconference following Covid-19 outbreak in the country at the beginning of 2020.

Three rounds of the dry run of the immunisation drive have so far been conducted across the country. There is still a week’s time to improve on the weak areas identified during these drills.

Under India’s vaccination drive, one crore healthcare workers and two crore frontline workers would be inoculated in the first phase. The Centre plans to also vaccinate 27 crore other persons who are at a greater risk of contracting the virus.

PM-CARES ((Prime Minister’s Citizen Assistance and Relief in Emergency Situations) Fund may be used to purchase the vaccines. The government had earlier allocated Rs 100 crore from the fund for the development of vaccines.

Meanwhile training for the vaccination drive has been almost done in all states and doctors, nurses and pharmacists are ready to vaccinate the beneficiaries.

As per the plan, around five vaccine officers would be deployed at each vaccination centre — one to check registration status of beneficiaries, another to verify documents, and three others to manage crowds and do other necessary works.
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n January 3, intramuscular vaccines ‘Covaxin’ and ‘Covishield’ were approved for restricted emergency use in India. Both are two-dose vaccines.

89 Delhi hospitals chosen for Covid vaccination drive’s first phase

With the world’s biggest vaccination drive slated to roll out across India from January 16, the Delhi government on Sunday said that it has made all preparations and finalised 89 hospitals for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination.

Of the 89 Delhi hospitals, 40 are government-run and 49 are private, Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain told a press conference.

Noting that the Central government has finalised around 5,000 vaccination sites across India, he said: “As per the instruction of the Central government, the Delhi government has prepared these 89 sites which are different hospitals of Delhi.

“At every centre, there will be 8-9 people who will handle the drive. With this preparation, the Delhi government will start the first phase of vaccination from January 16.”

Jain said that the Delhi government will focus on the healthcare workers, frontline workers and then the people aged above 50 in the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination.

As many as 2,25,000 healthcare workers will get the vaccination in the first phase of the mammoth exercise and that the Delhi government will also include teachers in the exercise as they worked as frontline workers in the time of Covid-19 pandemic, he said.

Jain said that the vaccines for the Covid-19 will start arriving between January 12 to 14 and the Delhi government has prepared a “very strong and robust storage system to keep the vaccine”.

“The whole system of vaccination is ready and we are fully prepared to start the vaccination drive. Right now, we are only waiting for the arrival of the Covid-19 vaccine and as soon as the vaccines start arriving, the work will start immediately.”

Citing Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s request to the Central government on Saturday regarding free vaccine distribution to everyone, the Minister said the Delhi government “is of the view that every person should get free vaccine across the country and we are monitoring the situation very carefully”.

Earlier in a meeting with Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Jain said he also requested him for the same.

“From our side, every decision regarding Covid vaccination will be for the benefit of the citizens of Delhi.”

The Minister said that that vaccine will be administered to Delhi residents as the Covid-19 situation in the capital has improved a lot and the situation is now under control with 519 positive cases witnessed on Saturday.

The positivity rate of Covid infection was 0.65. From the past 15 days, Delhi is continuously witnessing higher positivity rate. It should also be noted that for more than 15 days now, Delhi is witnessing less than thousand cases per day, he added.