New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the nationwide Covid vaccination drive on Saturday, a top official said today. Exactly 3 lakh peoples will get shots right from the start, VK Paul, individual from plan body NITI Aayog, told.
PM Modi will be beginning the vaccination program. The details are being worked out,” Mr Paul told NDTV on the launch of one of the world’s largest vaccination programmes two days later. The vaccination drive will start with 3,000 sites on Saturday. Each centre will immunize 100 peoples every day in the first place. “As the program progresses, it will be ramped up to 5,000 sites and more,” Mr Paul said.
The government aims to vaccinate 300 million high-risk people over the next few months. The first to get the shots will be 30 million health and other frontline workers, trailed by around 270 million 50 or more peoples.
“Vaccines have been allotted to states as per their healthcare workers data. Healthcare workers need not worry, I assure them. They should be the role model,” Mr Paul said.
Reports recommend PM Modi will will virtually interact with health workers in some cities after launching the drive. Batches of Covishield, the Oxford vaccine being produced by Serum Institute of India, and Bharat Biotech’s homegrown Covaxin, have been traveled to 12 cities for the first phase of vaccination. The government has purchased 110 lakh doses of Covishield at ₹ 200 for each dose (excluding taxes) to start with. 55 lakh doses of Covaxin have also been procured.
