The government is planning to utilize 40 to 50 crore Covid-19 vaccine so as to cover nearly 25 crore people by July 2021, said Union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday.
While the government is also keeping a close watch on immunity data with regard to Covid-19, it has also prepared a plan for building capabilities in HR, training, supervision, on a massive scale to inject nearly 25 crore Covid vaccine by the middle of next year, the minister said.
The Union health ministry is currently preparing a format in which States would submit lists of priority population groups to receive the vaccine, especially health workers engaged in the management of Covid-19. The list of frontline health workers would include both government as well as private-sector doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitary staff, ASHA workers, surveillance officers and many other occupational categories who are involved in tracing, testing and treatment of patients. This exercise is targeted to be completed by the end of this October.
A high-level committee under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog Member (Health) V K Paul is drawing up the entire process. The minister said committees are working on understanding the timelines of availability of various vaccines, obtaining commitments from vaccine manufacturers to make the available maximum number of doses for India and supply chain management, and on prioritisation of high-risk groups.
On which vaccine is better, the Minister said it is not possible to comment on the superiority of one vaccine over another although the government would ensure “that even if we have multiple vaccines available, they will all be safe and will elicit the requisite immune response against novel coronavirus”.