COVID-19 Vaccine: The rollout is expected to cover 3 lakh healthcare workers across India (File)
India will begin vaccination against the deadly coronavirus today with frontline health workers receiving the first shots. Vaccines have been flown to 12 cities for the first phase of the drive and kept under armed guard. States have been allotted vaccine doses based on their healthcare workers' data.
The country's drug regulator has approved two vaccines for emergency use - Oxford AstraZeneca's Covishield and indigenously developed Bharat Biotech's Covaxin. Both are two-dose vaccines which have to be administered 28 days apart.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has highlighted who should be administered the vaccine doses:
- Patients who have recovered from Covid-19
- Patients who have a history of chronic diseases
- Patients with immuno-deficiency and those infected with HIV, although the effect of the vaccine may be less
The rollout is expected to cover three lakh healthcare workers across 3,006 sites in the country. As the programme progresses, the number of sites will be ramped up to 5,000 and more.