Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold an important virtual meeting with Chief Ministers and Representatives of all States and Union Territories (UTs) on Monday, ahead of the launch of the world’s largest vaccination drive COVID-19 on 16 January.
At 4 PM on Monday 11th January, PM @narendramodi will interact with Chief Ministers of all states via video conferencing. They will discuss the COVID-19 situation and the vaccination rollout.
— PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 8, 2021
This will also be the first meeting of the Prime Minister with the CMs and representatives of all states and UTs after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) issued emergency use authorization to the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.
PM Modi will address the existing COVID-19 situation across the country during his meeting on Monday and how states and UTs have geared up for a vaccination drive starting from January 16.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has informed that in the first phase of vaccination, the government aims to inoculate nearly 30 million healthcare and frontline workers. After that, the jab will be given to those over 50 years of age and to the under 50 population groups with co-morbidities.
PM Modi also held a meeting with top officials from all states and UTs on Saturday to discuss the country’s COVID-19 status. The meeting was attended by Cabinet Secretary, Principal Secretary to PM, Health Secretary, and other senior officials.
Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan has announced that healthcare staff and frontline workers will be vaccinated nationwide free of charge. As regards the safety and effectiveness of vaccines, the Commission reported that the emergency approval of Covaxin and Covishield was only granted after a thorough review.
“India has finally built a state-of-the-art digital platform for COVID-19 vaccine delivery called CoWin. A critical part of our strategy involves maintaining confidence in the safety of vaccines in the possibility of adverse events following immunization,” he said.
Meanwhile, in a meeting chaired by Ram Sewak Sharma, Chairman of the Empowered Group on Technology and Data Management to Combat COVID-19, the Union Health Ministry said that the Co-WIN application aimed at tracking the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines will be a significant pillar of anti-COVID inoculation.
Sharma said that “non-negotiable” is the value of providing vaccine data in real-time. He added that caution needs to be exercised to ensure “no proxy” while emphasizing that the beneficiaries need to be “uniquely and undeniably identified.”