COVID vaccine rollout plan: 5000 session sites identified, says Health Ministry sources

Days after approval of two COVID vaccines by India, the Health ministry sources on Saturday said that 5000 session sites have been identified across the country for the COVID vaccine administration. In the national capital, there are as many as 89 session sites. Further, officials have been asked to submit a report by January 9 on appropriate locations where vaccination drive could take place in Delhi. The development comes after PMO's office announced that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair a virtual meeting with the Chief Ministers of all states at 4 pm on January 11 to discuss the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. Earlier on Friday, the first priority list of people was identified by the Health Ministry. 

Read: 2nd COVID-19 Vaccine Dry Run Begins; Health Minister Assures Sufficient Doses For Everyone

Read: PM Modi should take COVID vaccine first, then we'll also take it: RJD's Tej Pratap Yadav

Two COVID-19 vaccines approved

In a big breakthrough in India's fight against COVID-19, the Drug Controller General of India accepted the recommendations of the Subject Expert Committee of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation on January 3, paving way for the approval of COVISHIELD and COVAXIN. Manufactured by the Serum Institute of India with technology transfer from Oxford University-AstraZeneca, COVISHIELD is a Recombinant Chimpanzee Adenovirus vector vaccine with its overall efficacy at 70.42 per cent. Around 50 million doses of this vaccine are ready. On the other hand, COVAXIN is a Whole Virion Inactivated Corona Virus Vaccine developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR and NIV.

Bharat Biotech has completed the enrolment of 25,800 volunteers for the phase 3 clinical trials of COVAXIN. However, it has been approved in "public interest" in the clinical trial mode so that there can be more options for vaccination in case of infection by mutant strains. Both the vaccines have to be stored between 2-8 degrees celsius. Countering the charge that COVAXIN was approved hastily, Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan made it clear that all the recipients of this vaccine will be tracked and monitored as if they are in clinical trial mode.

Read: EU Doubles COVID-19 Vaccines Order With Pfizer-BioNTech

Read: PM Modi To Chair Meeting Of All CMs On Jan 11 To Discuss COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout