Nearly three lakh healthcare workers to get vaccine jabs on Day 1 of COVID-19 vaccination drive in India

The Indian government has planned to inoculate around 300 healthcare workers at 2,934 sites across India on the first day of the nationwide Covid-19 vaccination drive which is set to begin from January 16 across India.

Two COVID-19 vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin- have been given Emergency Use Authorisation in the country after going through established safety and immunogenicity through a proper regulatory process.

These vaccines may cost in the range of Rs 200 to Rs 295 in the country.

The Union Health Ministry has advised states not to organise “unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day” and said that each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries.

The ministry also said that states and UTs have also been advised to increase the number of vaccination session sites that would be operational every day in a progressive manner as the vaccination process stabilises and moves forward.

The government on Tuesday hinted that vaccine recipients, for now, will not have the option to choose from the two vaccines — Oxford Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, manufactured by Serum Institute of India(SII) and indigenously developed Covaxin of Bharat Biotech
— that have been approved for restricted emergency use in India.

According to the health ministry, getting vaccinated for Covid-19 will be voluntary.

The cost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers will be borne by the central government.