India Rolls Out Plans For COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Drive: 10 Key Points

by Sidharth Pandey 3 years ago Views 14587

India Rolls Out Plans For COVID-19 Mass Vaccinatio
The Central Government on Monday issued ‘operational guidelines’ for the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine for India's mass vaccination drive. Here are 10 important key points on how the vaccines are to be administered and what you need to do to get vaccinated. 

  • 30 crore population to be vaccinated in the 1st phase in 3 priority groups
  • Group 1: Top Priority: Vaccine will be first given to healthcare workers, Frontline workers & persons above 50 years of age. (Front line workers also include Personnel from State and Central Police department, Armed Forces, Home Guard, prison staff, disaster management volunteers and Civil Defense Organization and Municipal Workers)
  • Group 2: Persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities based on evolving pandemic situation. (Latest Lok Sabha and Legislative Assembly voter list will be used to identify population aged 50 years or more)
  • Group 3: General population gets vaccinated, based on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability
  • Only those who have pre-registered will be vaccinated in accordance with the prioritization at Vaccination centres, there will be no provision for on-the-spot Registrations
  • Vaccines to be given in 2 doses, three or four weeks apart and will be given via intramuscular injection 
  • Those administered vaccines will be monitored for 30 minutes  for any adverse effect
  • Team of 5 members to be in charge of each vaccination session and there will be 100-200 inoculations per session 
  • General Population can self-register for vaccination using 12 identity documents, Including Aadhaar, Driving License, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, MNREGA Job Card, Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs, PAN Card, Bank/Post office Passbook, Passport, Pension Document, Service Identity Card issued to employees by Central/State Govt./PSUs/ Public Limited Companies, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Voter ID card
  • All vaccinations will be done via a COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) system, a digitalised platform to track the enlisted beneficiaries for vaccination on a real-time basis

The Health Ministry says that the timing for the rollout of vaccination in these three-priority groups will be tailored based on vaccine availability and is not necessarily sequential. There are currently 9 Covid-19 vaccine candidates in different phases of development in India and of these 3 in the pre-clinical phase while 6 under clinical trials. Moreover, 20 ministries have been roped into enabling the rollout of the vaccine. While the various police forces will be tasked with ensuring safety, the armed forces will help get the vaccines in areas where it may be difficult to get to.


According to the health ministry, “As large population groups will be vaccinated over a short period of time with a new vaccine, monitoring the safety of these vaccines will be critical. The existing adverse event following immunization (AEFI) surveillance system will be utilised to monitor adverse events and inform the understanding of the safety profile of the vaccines.” 

Also as the vaccines will require to be kept at cold temperatures which could possibly range from -25 to +2 to +8 degrees Celsius, the ministry has also studied and planned for the required Cold-chain required for keeping and transporting the vaccine before administering it.

The ministry added that the timing for the rollout of vaccination in these three-priority groups will be tailored based on vaccine availability and is not necessarily sequential.

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