Govt releases frontline workers list who will receive first dose of COVID-19 vaccine

After India on January 3 approved two vaccines- Serum Insititute of India's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin for emergency use, the Centre on Friday released the list of front line workers who would be administered with the COVID-19 vaccine dose. While gearing up for the largest vaccination drive, earlier the Centre had said that 30 crore frontline workers in the country have been divided into different categories and they will be given the vaccine accordingly. 

The first category consists of police, civil defence, home guards personnel. The second category has paramilitary personnel, while municipal workers come in the third list. Disaster management professionals are in the fourth category. Fire safety personnel and prison staffers are in the fifth category. 

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While addressing a press conference,  Union Helath minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "Centre has ensured that every detail is conveyed to the people from the national level to the grassroots level. Lakhs of healthcare workers have been trained for vaccine administration and the process still continues."

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India begins its 2nd nation-wide dry run for COVID-19 vaccine

India on Friday began its 2nd nation-wide dry run for Coronavirus vaccine. According to the information shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), this massive mock drill will be held in 736 districts across 33 States and Union territories. The objective if this dry run is to simulate the actual vaccine administration event. 3 states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh will not be participating in this dry run as they have already conducted it in all their districts.

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The 1st nation-wide dry run for the vaccine was held on January 2. This drill was carried out to iron out any glitches in the final execution and further refinements of the operational procedures. So far, the feedback from most of the States and UTs has been satisfactory. 

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