One day to go for the rollout of the Covid vaccines, the centre circulated the dos and don'ts for vaccination to the states on Thursday. The rollout tomorrow is expected to cover 3 lakh healthcare workers across 3,006 sites across the country.
Vaccination is allowed only for those who are above the age of 18 years, the centre said. Women who are pregnant or not sure of their pregnancy and lactating mothers should not receive the vaccine.
The centre also said that interchangeability of vaccine is not permitted. The second dose of the vaccine should also be of the one that was administered as first dose.
Both vaccines cleared by the country's drug regulator -- Serum Institute's Covishield and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin -- are two-dose vaccines which have to be administered at a 28-day gap.
There is also a strict protocol for people who contracted the virus.
Vaccination will have to be deferred for four to eight weeks after recovery of patients with active Covid symptoms, those who have been given plasma therapy, and those who are unwell and hospitalized for any other reason.
The vaccination drive will use Co-WIN, an online digital platform developed by the Health Ministry to facilitate real-time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and tracking of vaccine recipients.
A 24x7 hotline - 1075 - has also been set up to address questions related to the vaccine rollout.
As the programme progresses, the number of sites will be ramped up to 5,000 and more. Vaccines have been allotted to states based on their healthcare workers' data.
Batches of Covishield and Covaxin have been flown to 12 cities for the first phase of vaccination. The vaccines are kept under armed guard.
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