New Delhi: India is planning to vaccinate about 30 million people, including healthcare professionals, who are on the frontline of the fight against the coronavirus disease in the first phase once protection against the viral disease becomes available, Union health ministry officials said.
“We have a rough estimate of about 3 crore people have been identified to be vaccinated in the first tranche. This would include about 70-80 lakh crore doctors and around 2 crore healthcare workers,” officials said.
According to Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, the country has the infrastructure already in place to vaccinate the 30 million.
Bhushan said “We have the cold chain, vials, syringes and everything.” He added: “In the deliberations of the national expert committee on vaccine administration we have come up with a draft prioritisation plan. We have also tried to match the numbers which have come from this draft plan to the number of doses that would become available from tentatively January to July 2021. And we think if the present trials proceeded according to plan, and succeed, then the number of doses that will become available from January to July 2021 would be sufficient to immunize the priority list persons. That we are working on.”