PM Narendra Modi to launch world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination programme in India today

PM Modi will launch world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination programme in India today. The largest vaccination programme will begin at a total of 3006 session sites across all States/UTs, which will be connected virtually throughout the exercise. Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each of the session sites.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag-off the first phase of the pan-India roll out of the COVID-19 vaccination drive – world’s largest vaccination drive - on Saturday (January 16, 2021) at 10:30 AM via video conferencing.

The world’s largest vaccination programme will begin at a total of 3006 session sites across all States/UTs, which will be connected virtually throughout the exercise. 

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Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each of the session sites. A dedicated 24x7 call centre — 1075 — has also been established for addressing the queries related to the pandemic, vaccine rollout and the CoWIN software, information released by the Prime Minister’s Office said.

Tomorrow, 16th January, India begins the pan-India rollout of COVID-19 Vaccination drive.

The launch will take place at 10:30 AM tomorrow morning. https://t.co/zopwtXPmZO — Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) January 15, 2021

The vaccination drive, where the beneficiaries currently will not have a choice between the two vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin — available in India, has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups, the Health Ministry said.

Healthcare workers, both in the government and private sectors including Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) workers, will receive the vaccine during this first phase.

On Friday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviewed preparations for the launch of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive. The Union Minister visited the dedicated COVID Control Room which has been set up at the Nirman Bhawan premises of the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare.

Vardhan said India’s exercise to vaccinate its population against COVID-19 will be the largest immunization drive of the world. The Union Minister reiterated that both the indigenously manufactured vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, have proven safety and immunogenicity records and are the most important tools to contain the pandemic.

He stated that adequate doses of both the vaccines have already been delivered across the country to all States/UTs. He also re-viewed the working of CoWIN, the online digital platform developed by the Ministry to be used to drive the vaccination programme.

The platform will facilitate real time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualized tracking of beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine. “This digital platform will assist programme managers across National, State, and District levels while conducting vaccination sessions. It will help them track beneficiary coverage, beneficiary dropouts, sessions planned v/s sessions held and vaccine utilization,” said the Ministry.

It added that the platform enables national and state administrators to view and sort data of beneficiaries as per their gender, age and co-morbidity.

They can also view the metadata of vaccinations and Adverse Event Following Immunization (AEFI) reported from constituent districts across States & UTs. District administrators can additionally create session sites at any location by entering the pin-code, followed by specifying the locality or villages and subsequently assigning a vaccinator. Vardhan suggested that the software modifications and lessons learnt while using the highly advanced CoWIN platform be incorporated into India’s Universal Immunization Program.