An estimated one crore frontline health workers are likely to receive the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine whenever it becomes available, official sources said.
Five vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India, out of which four are in Phase II/III and one is in Phase-I/II trials.
All the states have been asked to identify frontline healthcare workers including doctors, MBBS students, nurses and ASHA workers etc, within one week.
The Centre had already directed the state governments to do planning and mapping of vaccination sessions where healthcare workers will be vaccinated during the 1st phase and mapping human resources across departments that could be deployed for vaccination sessions for verification of beneficiaries, crowd management and overall coordination.
On Tuesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi discussed the Covid 19 status with the chief ministers of the states and union territories via video conferencing.
“Almost 92 percent of government hospitals and 55 percent of private hospitals in the country have provided data. The rest of the details will come in another week. We have asked the states to accelerate the process,” an official source said.
The anti-coronavirus vaccine, once available, would be distributed under a special Covid -19 inoculation programme, using the processes, technology and network of the existing Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP). It would run parallel to the UIP.
