As the world’s largest immunisation program takes off, Indian authorities aim to vaccinate 3 crore healthcare and frontline workers at priority. India has added its name to the list of the fewest countries that have given nod to the emergency use of two vaccines, Covishield developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca in the UK and Covaxin, developed locally by Bharat Biotech.
The anti-Covid vaccination drive was launched on 16th January 2021 by PM Modi across more than 3000 sites in India. As per the reports, the government is planning to vaccinate over 30 crore people by the end of July. Meanwhile, the world is all praise for India as the speed at which the vaccines are developed and rolled out is a remarkable achievement for the country’s scientific and regulatory administration.
After the completion of Day 1 of the vaccination drive, the Union Health Ministry of India stated “The first day of the massive countrywide Covid-19 vaccination programme was conducted successfully. A total of 3,352 sessions were held, wherein 1,91,181 beneficiaries were vaccinated as per the provisional reports. Additional 3,429 beneficiaries were vaccinated at Defence institutions. As many as 16,755 personnel were actively involved in organising the immunisation session sites.”
The contagion has already taken more than 1.5 lakh lives in the country and the public trust in vaccines is yet to be established. Upcoming months could pose a number of challenges for the government in terms of communication and implementation. Hence, before India emerges as the clear victor against the widespread disease, we must not forget the science of social distancing and staying masked.