PM Narendra Modi to launch India’s Covid-19 vaccine drive, first list up

India Covid-19 vaccine rollout: The Prime Minister’s Office said Narendra Modi will address the sites, where over three crore priority groups will be vaccinated over the next few months, at 10.30 am

The Prime Minister’s Office said Modi will address the sites, where over three crore priority groups will be vaccinated over the next few months, at 10.30 am. (PTI)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the start of the Covid-19 vaccination drive Saturday, connecting with 3,006 vaccination sites across the country via video-conferencing.

The Prime Minister’s Office said Modi will address the sites, where over three crore priority groups will be vaccinated over the next few months, at 10.30 am. “Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the inaugural day,” the government said.

Senior Health Ministry officials said the beneficiary list for the first day has already been uploaded on the Co-WIN platform. “The vaccination session is from 9 am to 5 pm. Whoever comes till 5 pm will be vaccinated even after 5 pm, just like how it happens in elections,” an official said.

“Since the bulk registration of healthcare workers has already taken place, they need not individually register. States have been told to ensure that the session sites, including the list of vaccinators and beneficiaries, is ready two days prior to each vaccination round. Therefore, for Day 1, states have finalised the beneficiary list,” the official added.

Sources said that the request by Jammu & Kashmir and Chhattisgarh to provide an offline mechanism to upload real-time data, given their remote locations where Internet connectivity is not strong, has been approved and a system for the same shared. “However, directions have been given that the upload of the offline data be done the same day to ensure that people are not missed,” an official said.

The government has also created a dedicated 24X7 helpline number — 1075 — to address queries related to the vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software.

The Health Ministry also announced that the next National Polio Immunisation Day has been rescheduled to January 31, from January 17, adding that this was in line with the policy that “Covid management and vaccination services as well as non-Covid essential health services proceed in tandem without adversely impacting each other”.

Kaunain Sheriff M

Kaunain Sheriff M is an award-winning investigative journalist and the National Health Editor at The Indian Express. He is the author of Johnson & Johnson Files: The Indian Secrets of a Global Giant, an investigation into one of the world’s most powerful pharmaceutical companies. With over a decade of experience, Kaunain brings deep expertise in three areas of investigative journalism: law, health, and data. He currently leads The Indian Express newsroom’s in-depth coverage of health. His work has earned some of the most prestigious honours in journalism, including the Ramnath Goenka Award for Excellence in Journalism, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) Award, and the Mumbai Press Club’s Red Ink Award. Kaunain has also collaborated on major global investigations. He was part of the Implant Files project with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), which exposed malpractices in the medical device industry across the world. He also contributed to an international investigation that uncovered how a Chinese big-data firm was monitoring thousands of prominent Indian individuals and institutions in real time. Over the years, he has reported on several high-profile criminal trials, including the Hashimpura massacre, the 2G spectrum scam, and the coal block allocation case. Within The Indian Express, he has been honoured three times with the Indian Express Excellence Award for his investigations—on the anti-Sikh riots, the Vyapam exam scam, and the abuse of the National Security Act in Uttar Pradesh. ... Read More

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