Covid Vaccination Drive: Govt Plans To Rope In Private Sector To Achieve Target Of 50,000 Sessions Per Day

The government is said to be gearing up to involve the private sector in a big way in the nationwide vaccination drive against COVID-19, reports Times of India.

As per NITI Aayog member (Health) Dr V K Paul, the details of the next phase of Covid-19 vaccination are currently being firmed up and the private sector's participation will be on a large scale. He emphasised that even now, the private sector conducts nearly 2,000 of the 10,000 vaccination sessions each day.

Dr Paul said that as the nation moves to a much speedier vaccination programme, the private sector engagement will become deeper and wider. This gains significance as the government is said to be aiming for 50,000 sessions each day.

Meanwhile, the government has also asked the state governments to increase the vaccination session sites.

The government has already vaccinated 67 per cent and 40 per cent of the registered healthcare and frontline workers respectively with the first dose of the vaccine. Around 11.15 lakh healthcare workers have also received their second doses.

On Monday (22 February), Union Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah also took stock of the evolving COVID-19 situation in the nation, especially in the states which have lately witnessed a spike in fresh cases.