Govt Plans To Use Infra Of Universal Immunisation Programme To Vaccinate People Against COVID-19

With vaccine development for COVID-19 progressing at a rapid pace and multiple candidates in final stages of trials, the Government is planning to use its expansive 42-years-old universal immunisation programme to manage the logistics of administering the vaccines to the masses once they are available, reports Hindustan Times.

Under its universal immunisation programme, the Government covers 25 million children every year, vaccinating them against a range of diseases including measles, polio, and tuberculosis. Out of the 2.39 lakh vaccinators under the programme, the Government is planning to deploy about 1.5 lakh workers for the job to vaccinate the first two priority groups from January to March next year.

Officials are said to be of the belief that the existing infrastructure and human resources shall be enough to vaccinate first 30 million citizens, which would primarily be healthcare workers and first responders. Also, the existing 29,000 cold storage facilities are likely to be enough to store and distribute 60 million doses required during this phase.

To facilitate the process, the Union Health Ministry has also already written to the States and Union Territories (UTs) to identify people who can be deployed for mass vaccination drive.