Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Saturday said that free coronavirus vaccines will be given in the first phase to three crore people who have been on the frontline in the fight against the disease.

The government will give priority to 1 crore healthcare workers and 2 crore frontline workers when India begins the rollout of the Covid vaccine, he added.

“In 1st phase of #COVID19Vaccination free #vaccine shall be provided across the nation to most prioritised beneficiaries that incl 1 crore healthcare & 2 crore frontline workers. Details of how further 27 cr priority beneficiaries are to be vaccinated until July are being finalised (sic),” Dr Harsh Vardhan tweeted this afternoon.

The dry run to check the best way to vaccinate people against the virus and plug loopholes in logistics and training has started in all the states today.

The activity is proposed to be conducted in all State Capitals in at least 3 session sites; some States will also include districts that are situated in difficult terrain/have poor logistical support; Maharashtra and Kerala are likely to schedule the dry run in major cities other than their Capital.

This drive will also test the operational feasibility in the use of CoWIN application in a field environment. CoWIN is a digital platform to roll out and scale up the vaccination drive.

“The DCGI will soon take a decision on the recommendation,” the Health Minister told the reporters this morning as he review the vaccine dry run at a Delhi hospital.

“There should be no rumours about the vaccine’s safety…Everything has been checked in detail. Initially when the polio vaccine was rolled out, even then rumours had floated. But once it went on the floor, all people were assured about the safety,” he asserted.

A government-appointed panel of experts on Covid has taken up the applications filed by the Serum Institute of India, Bharat Biotech and Pfizer for the emergency use approval for the coronavirus vaccines.

Serum Institute had made presentations before the panel on Wednesday regarding the vaccine ‘Covishield’ developed by Oxford University and pharma major AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech which has partnered the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for its ‘Covaxin’.