"COVID-19 Vaccine For Our Countrymen In The Next Few Days": Harsh Vardhan

COVID-19 vaccines could be made available to "our countrymen" as early as the "next few days", Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said today. The government has, meanwhile, ensured that every detail of the vaccination programme is conveyed to the people, from the national level to the grassroots level, he has said.

The first to be inoculated will be healthcare professionals and frontline workers, the minister said today during while reviewing the second dry run of the coronavirus vaccination exercise at the Government General Hospital in Chennai.

"In a short time, India has done well by developing vaccines...In the next few days, in the near future, we should be able to give these vaccines to our countrymen. It will be given to our healthcare professional followed by frontline workers," Minister Vardhan said, according to ANI. "Lakhs of healthcare workers are being trained through these dry runs, and the process to train more is still going on."

The Minister is in Tamil Nadu to oversee the dry run drill and is scheduled to visit other sites in Chennai, too, such as the Omandurar hospital, Apollo hospital, and Chengalpattu. The second nationwide mock drill is being held at three-session sites of 736 districts across 33 States and Union Territories today.

The dry run tests laid out mechanisms for the programme's roll-out. It also assesses the operational feasibility of using the CoWIN application in a field environment to plan, implement, and report at multiple levels. The earlier drill of January 2 helped iron out glitches in programme and refine the procedures.