The government plans to receive and utilize 40-50 crore Covid-19 vaccine doses to cover 20-25 crore Indians by July 2021, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday. “The Centre is also working on plans for building capacities in HR, training, supervision, etc on a massive scale and roughly estimates to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses covering approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021,” he said, while responding to questions asked by social media users said on the fourth episode of his ‘Sunday Samvaad’ today.
The union minister said that the Health Ministry is currently preparing a format in which states will submit lists of priority population groups to receive the vaccine, especially health workers engaged in the management of COVID19, and this exercise is targeted to be completed by the end of this October. He further informed that the Government is also keeping an eye on immunity data with regard to COVID-19 disease while finalizing these plans.
The Health Minister further informed that there is a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Niti Aayog Member (Health) VK Paul is drawing up the entire process. “Vaccine procurement is being done centrally and each consignment will be tracked real-time until delivery to ensure it reaches those who need it most,” he said.
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On a question regarding Phase 3 Clinical Trial of Russia’s “Sputnik-V” vaccine in India, Harsh Vardhan clarified that the matter is still under consideration, and no decision has been taken as yet on the Phase 3 trials.
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