The vaccination drive will begin with 3,006 sites that will be virtually connected during the launch.
New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the nationwide Covid vaccination drive at 10.30 am on Saturday through video-conference.
The vaccination drive will begin with 3,006 sites that will be virtually connected during the weekend launch. Each centre will inoculate 100 people a day.
"This vaccination programme is based on the principles of priority groups to be vaccinated, and healthcare workers both in the government and private sectors will receive the vaccine during this phase," an official statement said.
Some three lakh health workers will receive shots on the first day of one of the world's biggest vaccination efforts. The list includes health workers, both from government and private institutions, along with sanitation workers, other frontline workers, defence forces, police and other paramilitary forces.
The vaccination programme will use Co-WIN, an online digital platform developed by the Health Ministry for real-time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and tracking of vaccine recipients.
A 24x7 hotline - 1075 - has also been set up to address questions related to the vaccine rollout.
"A dedicated 24x7 call centre – 1075 – has also been established for addressing the queries related to COVID-19 pandemic, vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software," the ministry said.
The government faces the daunting task of rolling out shots at an accelerated pace in a country of more than 1.3 billion people which has long struggled with limited health infrastructure and patchy cold-chain storage facilities. The country has so far reported more than 10.5 million infections as of Thursday and 151,727 deaths.
Officials have hinted that recipients will not be given a choice between Covishield and Covaxin and there won't be any mixing of vaccines at any center.