PM Modi to Launch COVID-19 Vaccination Drive on January 16, Likely to Interact with Recipients

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the rollout of India’s COVID-19 vaccination program on January 16, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.He is likely to interact via video link with some healthcare workers from across the country who will be receiving the shots on the first day, revealed the sources.

According to the sources, Modi is also likely to launch the Co-WIN (COVID Vaccine Intelligence Network) App, a digital platform created for real-time monitoring of COVID-19 vaccine delivery and distribution.

A limited number of sites out of the 2,934 inoculation sites have been shortlisted from where the beneficiaries can interact with the Prime Minister and the authorities. In those centers, it has been asked to make provisions for IT infrastructure for providing a two-way interactive communication facility to enable it to link and interact with the national launch site through a video link, they said.

Officials at New Delhi’s AIIMS and Safdarjung hospitals, which are among the shortlisted facilities, said they are “ready for a two-way communication”.

Around three lakh healthcare workers will get vaccine shots at 2,934 sites across the country on the first day of the massive nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive, a senior official said. Each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries.

According to the guidelines issued to the shortlisted vaccination centers, healthcare workers (those registered in Co-WIN to be vaccinated) on the launch shall include not only doctors, nurses but also nursing orderlies, ambulance drivers, and would be from a mixed age group, including above 50 years.

The full initial procurement of 1.65 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, has been allocated to all states and UTs in proportion to their healthcare workers database.