Battling COVID-19: Govt Hopes To Vaccinate 20-25 Crore Indians By July 2021

New Delhi: The Union government has estimated it will receive and utilise 40-50 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccine by July 2021 that will cover about 20-25 crore Indians.

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that the government is preparing a format whereby the states will be asked submit by the end of October their list of priority groups to receive the vaccine.

A high-level group of experts, headed by Niti Aayog Member (Health) Dr V K Paul, is studying all aspects related to vaccines based on which the states will prioritize population groups.

Frontline health workers will be top of the priority list and will include government as well as private-sector doctors, nurses, paramedics, sanitary staff, ASHA workers, surveillance officers and many other occupational categories who are involved in tracing, testing and treatment of patients.

“The Centre is also working on plans for building capacities in human resources, training, supervision and others on a massive scale and roughly estimates to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses covering approximately 20-25 crore people by July 2021. All this is under various stages of finalisation,” Vardhan said.

“Our government is working round the clock to ensure that there is a fair and equitable distribution of vaccines, once they are ready. Our utmost priority is how to ensure a vaccine for each and everybody in the country,” the minister assured during his weekly interaction programme Sunday Samvaad.

He explained that the process of vaccine procurement will be done centrally and each consignment will be tracked real-time until delivery to ensure it reaches those who need it most.

“Vaccines will be distributed as per pre-decided priority and in a programmed manner. To ensure transparency and accountability, details of the entire process will be shared in the coming months.”