Chennai: The stage is set for the largest vaccination drive in the world. As India gears up to inoculate its population against the deadly Covid-19 virus, which had wrecked havoc on its economy and caused loss of life on an unprecedented scale, all eyes are on the roll-out of the process.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the first phase of the drive at 10.30 am via video conferencing.
He had yesterday tweeted, “Tomorrow, January 16, India begins the pan-India rollout of Covid-19 Vaccination drive. The launch will take place at 10:30 AM tomorrow morning.”
The country would enter a ‘decisive phase’ in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic with vaccination drive, he said.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday too reviewed preparations and visited the dedicated COVID control room set up at the Nirman Bhawan premises of the health ministry.
Vardhan will be visiting the new OPD wing of AIIMS between 10-10:30 am on Saturday to join the AIIMS doctors and potential vaccine beneficiaries to participate in and witness the launch of the vaccination.
He is also scheduled to visit a few more sites in the capital subsequently.
This vaccination program will cover the entire length and breadth of the country, with a total of 3006 session sites across all states and union territories which will be connected virtually throughout the exercise.
Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated Saturday at each of the session sites, the health ministry said.
The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups. Healthcare workers, both in government and private sectors including ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers, will receive the vaccine during this phase, the ministry said in a statement.
During his visit to the Covid control room, Vardhan minutely scrutinised each aspect of the working of Co-WIN, an online digital platform developed by the Health Ministry which will be used to drive the vaccination programme.
It will facilitate real-time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries for Covid-19 vaccine. This digital platform will assist programme managers across national, state, and district levels while conducting vaccination sessions.
It will help them track beneficiary coverage, beneficiary dropouts, sessions planned v/s sessions held and vaccine utilisation, the Ministry stated.
The platform enables national and state administrators to view and sort data of beneficiaries as per their gender, age and co-morbidity.