COVID-19 vaccination drive to kick off on January 16: Centre

The 3 crore healthcare workers and the frontline workers will be the top priority for the COVID-19 vaccines.

New Delhi: The Centre on Saturday (January 9, 2021) announced that the COVID-19 vaccination drive will kick off from January 16, 2021.

On top of the priority list are the healthcare workers and the frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crore, followed by those above 50 years and the under-50 population groups with co-morbidities numbering around 27 crore.

In a press release by the government of India, it informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of COVID-19 vaccination in the country on Saturday. The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to PM, Health Secretary, and other senior officials concerned.

He also reviewed the preparedness of the State/UTs for the COVID-19 vaccination rollout.

After the detailed review, it was decided that in view of the forthcoming festivals which include Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc., the COVID-19 vaccination will commence from January 16, 2021.

So far, the national drug regulator has granted Emergency Use Authorisation or Accelerated Approval to two vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) which have established safety and immunogenicity.

The Prime Minister was apprised on the three vaccination dry runs conducted across the country the last of which was conducted yesterday across 615 districts covering 4895 session sites in 33 States/UTs.

As many as 2,360 participants were trained for the task which comprise state immunization officers, cold chain officers, IEC officials, development partners etc. 

While more than 61,000 programme managers, 2 lakh vaccinators and 3.7 lakh other vaccination team members have been trained so far at the State, District and Block levels.