Published 10:38 IST, January 30th 2021
Centre asks States & UTs to start COVID-19 vaccination for frontline workers from Feb 1
The center has asked states and Union territories to start giving COVID-19 vaccine shots to the front line workers from February 1, 2021
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The Central Government has asked all the states and Union territories to start immunizing the front line workers from February 1 to increase the speed of the vaccination drive. Additional secretary (health) Manohar Agnani advised all the states and UTs in a written letter to start the process of also including frontline workers in the vaccination drive along with healthcare workers.
He further said, "The required doses of both types of vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) have been allocated to the States and UTs. And further argumentation will be made through subsequent releases of vaccine doses to states and UTs."
Increase in the number of vaccination sessions per day
On Thursday, The Union Health Ministry said that at least 25,07,556 beneficiaries have been vaccinated for COVID-19 till 2 pm all over India that day. Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan informed that there is an increase in the number of vaccination sessions per day and also mentioned that said India was the fastest to reach the first 1 million vaccinations. Till Friday evening, close to 3.5 million received anti-coronavirus shots.
On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the pan-India rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination drive through video conferencing. He said that a vaccination drive on such scale and scope has never been conducted in history. "Normally, it takes many years to make a vaccine but in such a short span of time, not one, but two 'Made in India' vaccines are ready. Meanwhile, the work on other vaccines is progressing at a fast pace. This is a living example of India's capability and talent. India's vaccination programme is based on a very important principle that those who are in need of the vaccine will get vaccinated first. Our doctors, nurses, medical & paramedical staff, sanitation workers in hospitals - be it private or hospital are entitled to get vaccinated. This will be done on priority," the Prime Minister had said.
The drug regulatory body of India has currently approved two vaccines. Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) has developed the Covishield vaccine developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University while the Covaxin has been developed by Hyderabad's Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the Indian Medical Council of research (ICMR) and National Institute of Virology.
10:38 IST, January 30th 2021