Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday launched the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive via video conferencing. This will be the world’s largest vaccination program covering the entire length and breadth of the country.
“Today, many of those scientists who had been involved in making the vaccine against Corona for the past several months deserve special praise,” Modi said.
“It usually takes years to make a vaccine. But in such a short time, India developed not one, but two Made in India vaccines,” he said.
The Prime Minister said that the government will take care of the expenses of COVID vaccination for 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers in India.
“Never before has this large-scale vaccination campaign been run in history. There are more than 100 countries in the world whose population is less than 30 million. And India is vaccinating 3 crore people in its first phase of vaccination,” Modi said.
“In the second phase, we have to take it to the number of 30 crores. Those who are elderly, who are suffering from serious illness, will get vaccinated at this stage,” he added.
Modi said, “Today the whole world is praising the way India dealt with this epidemic. India also set the example of how center and state govts, local bodies, government and social institutions can work united.”
This vaccination programme is based on the principles of priority groups to be vaccinated and Health Care workers, both in government and private sectors including ICDS workers, will receive the vaccine during this phase.
The vaccination programme will use Co-WIN, an online digital platform developed by Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which 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 all levels while conducting vaccination sessions, according to the official release.
A dedicated 24×7 call centre – 1075 – has also been established for addressing the queries related to COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software.
Adequate doses of both COVISHIELD and COVAXIN have already been delivered across the country to all States/UTs with the active support of the Ministry of Civil Aviation. These have been further delivered by the State/UT governments to the districts.
