Frontline workers to get Covid-19 vaccine in phase 1 |
In its first phase of vaccination, India is looking at vaccinating about 30 million people, including healthcare specialists, who are on the frontline of the fight against the Covid-19. According to the Union Health Ministry, the first phase will begin once protection against the viral disease becomes available. In a media briefing on 20th October, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said the 30 million includes 7 million doctors and paramedics, in addition to 20 million other frontline health workers. He added that India has the infrastructure already in place to vaccinate the 30 million including the cold chain, vials, syringes, and everything. The first phase of vaccination has been tentatively scheduled between January and June 2021. India has been running a successful Universal Immunisation Programme for the past 50 years, vaccinating about 25 million children and adults each year. As a result, India has more than 28,000 cold storages already existing across the country that are used to store several vaccines administered under the program. All these facilities have temperature trackers that help upload information in real-time on centralized servers. The health secretary also said that the government was engaging with private entities as certain private hospitals are claiming that they have the infrastructure to store and administer large doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
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