Coronavirus: India ready to roll out vaccine by Jan 13, says Health Ministry

In the first phase, the govt will inoculate 1 crore healthcare workers, 2 crore frontline workers followed by about 27 crore people who are above 50 or have serious comorbidities.

Team Newsable

Bengaluru, First Published Jan 6, 2021, 1:02 PM IST | Last Updated Jan 6, 2021, 1:02 PM IST

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Tuesday announced that the government is prepared to roll out Covid vaccines within 10 days of granting emergency use authorisation.

According to Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan, based on the feedback from the dry run of vaccination drive, the ministry is ready to introduce vaccine within 10 days from the date of emergency use authorisation.

On Sunday, the Drug Controller General of India granted AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin emergency use approval.

Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said that the government was ready to roll out the vaccine drive within 10 days from approval. “Now since the approval has been granted, the vaccine drive will be rolled out within 10 days from that day [Sunday, January 3],” he said.

"There is no need for beneficiary registration of healthcare and frontline workers as their information will be taken from a bulk database that has been populated onto the CO-WIN Vaccine Delivery Management System," Union health secretary Bhushan said.

Putting speculation to rest, Bharat Biotech and Serum Institute of India issued a joint statement on Tuesday expressing their "combined intent to develop manufacture and supply the Covid-19 vaccines for India and globally". The statement went on to add, "We are fully aware of the importance of vaccines for people and countries alike, we hereby communicate our joint pledge to provide global access for our COVID-19 vaccines."

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