New Dehli: Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has indicated that about 25 crore individuals are likely to be inoculated with a double-dose the COVID-19 vaccine by next July.
States have been asked to prepare a list by the month end of priority population groups to get the vaccine, he said and added that these would include frontline health workers — both government as well as private sector doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitary staff, ASHA workers, surveillance officers and others involved in the tracing, testing and treatment of patients.
“The Centre is working on plans for building capacities in human resources, training, supervision etc. on a massive scale and roughly estimates to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses covering approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021,” he added.
“Vaccine procurement is being done centrally and each consignment will be tracked in real time. Priority will be given to frontline health care workers,” Vardhan said in the fourth edition of Sunday Samvad, his weekly social media interaction with the public.