"India Entering Decisive Phase In Fight Against Covid-19": PM Modi Talks Vaccine Roll-out With Chief Ministers

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said today (11 January) that the cost of vaccination in phase one involving around three crore people will be borne not by the states but by the centre.

He said this as part of his closing remarks at the meeting with chief ministers and administrators about the vaccination programme, touted to be the world's largest of its kind, set to begin on 16 January.

In the first phase, the beneficiaries of a vaccine will include government and private health workers, sanitation workers, military personnel, police and paramilitary personnel, home guard, disaster management volunteers, civil defence volunteers, revenue officials associated with containment and surveillance, and other workers operating on the Covid-19 frontline.

These frontline workers make up about three crore people, Modi said.

The second phase of inoculation will see people over 50 years of age and those below 50 years of age and at risk of infection receiving the vaccine.

The Prime Minister said dry runs have already been completed in nearly every district. "Completion of dry runs in nearly every district in such a huge country speaks to our country's massive capability," he said.

"Our new preparations, the Covid-19 SOPs (standard operating procedures) have to be integrated with our past experiences with vaccination," Modi said, referring to India's successful experience with implementing universal immunisation programmes.

According to the Prime Minister, the most important aspect of the vaccine roll-out is the identification and monitoring of people who need vaccination. Tools like Aadhaar and the new digital platform CoWIN will help in this regard.

CoWIN will generate a digital vaccination certificate for a beneficiary after they receive the first dose of the vaccine. It will then notify the beneficiary as to when they should take the second dose. After the two doses are taken, it will generate a final vaccination certificate.

CoWIN has been developed as an extension of the electronic Vaccine Intelligence Network module for it to serve as a comprehensive cloud-based information technology solution for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of COVID-19 vaccination in India.

The system allows for the creation of users (admins, supervisors, vaccinators), registration of beneficiaries (bulk upload and individual registration), facilities/planning unit, and session sites followed by planning and scheduling sessions and implementation of the vaccination process, the Health Ministry has said.

The Prime Minister urged chief ministers to ensure that real-time vaccination data is uploaded on CoWIN. "Even a little slip-up in this part can affect the vaccination programme," he said. "Other countries will follow what India is going to do. That is why we have to be more responsible."

India aims to achieve vaccination for 30 crore people over the next few months.

The Prime Minister emphasised that all Covid-19 protocols are to followed going forward, even by the beneficiaries of a vaccine. He also advised states to keep a check on the spread of rumours related to vaccination.

It is a matter of pride, said the Prime Minister, that the two vaccines that have received emergency-use authorisation are "made in India". They are also cost-effective compared to vaccines deployed in other countries, he said.

Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford University-AstraZeneca's Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, were approved for restricted emergency use on 3 January.

Four more vaccines are in the pipeline.