Ahead of a crucial meeting on vaccine administration that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold Tuesday morning with Chief Ministers, top government sources told that one crore frontline healthcare workers have been identified to receive the first dose of whichever vaccine is available against the novel coronavirus infection early next year.
The sources, who are part of the expert group on vaccine administration, said they have “moved into an advance stage” of building a database for the first priority group — “frontline healthcare workers” — who will receive the first dose during the immunisation drive, if and when a particular vaccine is cleared by the Indian regulator for commercial use.
“We have received a substantial response from the states. Ninety two per cent of all government hospitals across all states have provided data. Around 56 per cent of private-sector hospitals have provided data. We are at an advanced stage,” a top government source said.
“What has emerged is that the entire group (of frontline health care workers) is approximate around 1 crore,” the source said.
The creation of a database on healthcare and frontline workers — a process that is now in the final stages — comes ahead of PM Modi’s detailed engagement with Chief Ministers on vaccine administration on Tuesday morning. Dr V K Paul, member, NITI Aayog, and Rajesh Bhushan, Union Health Secretary, both of whom co-chair the expert group, are expected to make a detailed presentation in the meeting, senior officials confirmed.
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