News Analysis India

Tag: Covid vaccination

  • From ministers to public, what people said about COVID vaccination drive

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: As India launched the world’s largest vaccination drive against the coronavirus pandemic, showing the light at the end of a 10-month tunnel that upended millions of lives and livelihoods, here are some of the quotes from people who took the jab and ministers:

    — Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan: These vaccines are ‘sanjivani’ in our fight against this pandemic. We have won the battles against polio and small pox. Now, we have reached the decisive phase of winning the war against coronavirus.

    — Manish Kumar, first person in Delhi to get vaccine shot: Many of them (staff) were scared.

    So, I went to my seniors and said I should be given the vaccine first. I wanted to prove to my colleagues that there is no need to be scared.

    — Manish Kumar, first person in Delhi to get vaccine shot: She (wife) even asked me not to take the vaccine. I told her it is just an injection. After taking the dose, I asked my mother to tell my wife that I am safe.

    — Bipasha Seth, the first person who got inoculated in West Bengal: It’s a great day for humankind. I feel elated to get the first dose.

    — Tamil Nadu CM K Palaniswami: Everyone should for sure get vaccinated. You and I have to get vaccinated. Those from your and my family too should get the vaccinated.

    — Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray: It is a revolutionary step we are taking today. I salute to the corona warriors who selflessly treated the COVID-19 patients when there was no remedy available.

    — Abdul Qayoom, security guard at Era Medical College in Uttar Pradesh: There was always fear in mind because of close proximity to coronavirus patients. But now I am feeling much safer.

    — Biji Tomy, a nurse in Delhi who got the shot: We risked our lives and were pained to see so many deaths every day. It is a relief that we have a vaccine against coronavirus now.

    — Kerala Health Minister K K Shailaja: The pandemic is not going to end after this vaccine. We still need to make sure that we follow the health protocol, including the use of masks, hand wash and social distancing. The immunity will be developed slowly.

    — West Bengal Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim: It seems we are slowly coming out of the pandemic, which has claimed so many lives. We were in a state of depression for the last one year. From today, we will again relive our lives.

    — J&K Lt Governor Manoj Sinha to COVID warriors: When pre and post pandemic history will be written, your contribution will be written in golden words.

    — Naveen Kumar from LNJP Hospital’s administration department in Delhi: I feel perfectly normal after the vaccination. Drawing blood from veins hurts more.

    — Serum Institute CEO Adar Poonawalla: It brings me great pride that #COVISHIELD is part of this historic effort & to endorse it’s safety & efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself.

    — Ashokbhai, the first recipient of the vaccine in Gujarat: I didn’t have any apprehension about getting this vaccine. Everyone should take it.

    — M K Sudarshan, chairperson of Karnataka government’s COVID-19 technical advisory committee: Benefit of vaccination clearly outweighs the risk of disease….I have taken the vaccine to give a message to people of country that the vaccine is safe and will be helpful.

    — Uttarakhand CM Trivendra Singh Rawat: The antibodies begin to form two weeks after the second dose, which is administered on the 28th day after the first. You must show patience and wait for at least one-and-a-half months.

    — NITI Aayog member V K Paul: I believe that this is a great vaccine. I have taken Covaxin. Embrace the vaccine.

  • Noida receives 28,840 doses, all set for COVID vaccination

    By Express News Service
    NEW DELHI:  Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar has got 28,840 doses of vaccines for Covid-19 for the first phase of the much-anticipated vaccination drive set to take place on Saturday, according to officials.

    Hundreds of frontline healthcare workers will be the first to get jabs of the Covishield vaccine at six centres in Noida and Greater Noida in the district, Additional Chief Medical Officer and District Immunisation Officer Neeraj Tyagi said.

    “Health Department officials will hold the vaccination drive tomorrow at the Child PGI in Sector 30, the Kailash Hospital in Sector 27, the Community Health Centres (CHCs) at Bhangel and Bisrakh, the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) and Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida,” Tyagi was quoted as saying in a statement.

    While reviewing the situation on Friday, DM Suhas L Y instructed all officials concerned to ensure adherence to all government guidelines and parameters during the vaccination. Chief Medical Officer Deepak Ohri said Gautam Buddh Nagar district has been provided 28,840 doses of the Covishield vaccine for the first round of vaccination on Saturday. The vaccines had arrived in sealed containers from Meerut and have been kept in the cold storage at the CMO’s in Noida in accordance with protocols amid high security.

  • Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan reviews preparedness for nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive

    By PTI
    NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday reviewed preparations for the launch of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive scheduled to begin on January 16 and visited the dedicated COVID control room set up at the Nirman Bhawan premises of the health ministry.

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi will flag off the first phase of the pan India roll-out of COVID-19 vaccination drive at 10:30 AM via video conferencing.

     This vaccination program will cover the entire length and breadth of the country, with a total of 3006 session sites across all states and union territories which will be connected virtually throughout the exercise.

    Around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated Saturday at each of the session sites, the health ministry said. The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, identifying priority groups.

    Healthcare workers, both in government and private sectors including ICDS (Integrated Child Development Services) workers, will receive the vaccine during this phase, the ministry said in a statement.

    Vardhan said India’s exercise to vaccinate its population against COVID-19 shall be the largest immunisation drive of the world.

    He reiterated that both the indigenously manufactured vaccines, Covishield by Serum Institute of India and COVAXIN of Bharat Biotech, have proven safety and immunogenicity records and are the most important tools to contain the pandemic, the statement said.

    During his visit to the COVID control room, Vardhan minutely scrutinised each aspect of the working of Co-WIN, an online digital platform developed by the health ministry which will be used to drive the vaccination programme.

    It will facilitate real time information of vaccine stocks, storage temperature and individualised tracking of beneficiaries for COVID-19 vaccine.

    This digital platform will assist programme managers across national, state, and district levels while conducting vaccination sessions. It will help them track beneficiary coverage, beneficiary dropouts, sessions planned v/s sessions held and vaccine utilisation, the ministry stated.

    The platform enables national and state administrators to view and sort data of beneficiaries as per their gender, age and co-morbidity. They can also view the metadata of vaccinations and adverse event following immunization (AEFI) reported from constituent districts across states and union territories, the ministry said.

    District administrators can additionally create session sites at any location by entering the pin-code, followed by specifying the locality or villages and subsequently assigning a vaccination. Vardhan suggested that the software modifications and lessons learnt while using the highly advanced Co-WIN platform be incorporated into India’s universal immunisation program, the statement stated.

    He also reviewed the beneficiary registration page for all non-prioritised groups on CoWIN.

    He suggested pre-populating the software with beneficiaries by seeding it with electoral database, in addition to other documents that are authorised for registration.

    “The dedicated COVID Control Room has been involved in the massive exercise of monitoring district wise COVID-19 data from across the country as well as in depth analysis of the data to interpret and evaluate the status of the pandemic.”

    “For the last several months, through this dedicated control room, the government has been closely monitoring parameters such as case fatality rates, infection rates, death rates, and other parameters based on which containment strategies have been continuously evolved,” the ministry said.

    The control room has also been helping to track and record best strategies being adopted by different countries as a part of their response system and translating them into key learnings for India.

    The Union minister also reviewed the working of the ‘communications control room’ which has been closely monitoring the disinformation campaigns and rumour mongering in relation to administering of COVID-19 vaccines.

    He advised the administrative machinery to go all out to counter the misinformation campaign being spread by vested interests.

    The full initial procurement of 1.65 crore doses of COVID-19 vaccines — Covishield and Covaxin– has been allocated to all states and union territories in proportion to their healthcare workers database.

    States and union territories have been advised to utilise a maximum of 10 days in a fortnight for the COVID-19 vaccination.

    They have also been advised to organise vaccination sessions taking into account 10 per cent reserve/wastage doses and an average of 100 vaccinations per session per day.

    Therefore, any undue haste on the parts of the states to organise unreasonable numbers of vaccination per site per day is not advised, the ministry had said on Wednesday.

    The states and union territories have also been advised to increase the number of vaccination session sites that would be operational every day in a progressive manner as the vaccination process stabilises and moves forward.

    According to the government, the shots will be offered first to an estimated one crore healthcare workers, and around two crore frontline workers, and then to persons above 50 years of age, followed by persons younger than 50 years of age with associated comorbidities.

    Cost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers will be borne by the central government.

    Vardhan will be visiting the new OPD wing of AIIMS between 10-10:30 AM on Saturday to join the AIIMS doctors and potential vaccine beneficiaries to participate in and witness the launch of the vaccination.

    He is also scheduled to visit a few more sites in the capital subsequently.

  • Bihar ready for Covid vaccination, all will be inoculated in 3 to 4 months: Nitish

    Express News Service
    PATNA: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Tuesday assured that the government has made adequate preparations to roll out Covid vaccination and all the people of the state will be inoculated in the next 4 to 5 months.

    Kumar, who was speaking to reporters after a function on ‘Jal Jivan Haryali (Water Life and Greenery), said his government was fully prepared for the state-wide vaccination.

    “A detailed road map has been prepared and in the next 4 to 5 months, all people of Bihar will be inoculated with the corona vaccine on priority-wise”, he said.

    When asked about SP chief Akhilesh Yadav’s comment on the corona vaccine, Nitish Kumar said that some people make statements to get publicity in politics.

    Expressing his displeasure on the misuse of social media for spreading false information, he said that rumour is being spread continuously through social media.  “Today the situation is such that wrong things are being circulated more than the good things on social media”, he said and asked the officials to sharedetails of good work done on social media to inform the people.

    He claimed that 22 lakhs of people who returned to Bihar by trains during the lockdown were provided with all necessary assistance.

  • When can I get COVID vaccine, how to register for it: Here is all you need to know

    By Online Desk
    The Centre will inoculate 30 crore people belonging to priority groups in the first phase of its vaccination drive.

    In the initial phase, healthcare and frontline workers will be covered under the vaccination drive. They will be followed by those above 50 and people with comorbidities. The government is in the process of determining the specific clinical criteria under which the people with underlying conditions will be identified for the purpose. In all, 31 hubs had been established to supply vaccines to 29,000 vaccination points in last-mile delivery.

    Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has appealed to people not to be misguided by “rumours” regarding the safety and efficacy of the coronavirus vaccine, and said the most prioritised beneficiaries would be vaccinated for free. 

    The vaccines would be provided in the first phase of the inoculation drive to the most prioritised beneficiaries, including one crore healthcare and two crore frontline workers.

    Here are the Frequently Asked Questions about COVID-19 vaccination

    Who will get the vaccine first and how soon can I have it?

    1. Healthcare workers: The vaccine will first be given to around 1 crore healthcare workers in government and private hospitals such as doctors, nurses, medical supervisors, medical officers, paramedical staff, support staff, and medical students.

    2. Frontline workers: The next in line are about 2 crore frontline workers in central and state police departments, armed forces, home guard, disaster management, civil defence organisation, jail staff, municipal workers, revenue officials on Covid duty, employees of state governments and Union ministries of defence, home, housing, and urban affairs

    3. Population above 50: The third in line are the people above 50. The latest electoral rolls will be used to identify the population under this category for the vaccination drive.

    4. People in highly-affected areas: Governments will prioritise groups of people in highly-affected areas as decided by the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC)

    5. The rest: The remaining population will be vaccinated after the people on the priority list are covered. The vaccination here will depend on the disease epidemiology and vaccine availability. To avoid overcrowding at the vaccination session site, the vaccine will be given to the beneficiaries in a staggered manner.

    In the first two stages, the government will vaccinate priority groups including frontline workers and emergency workers. People with co-morbidities will get the jab in the third stage. For this, a self-registration process will be required through the Co-WIN app.

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    How to register for the vaccine?

    The Centre has launched a new mobile app called ‘CoWIN App’ which will let you register for Covid vaccination.

    Soon, it will be available to download for free on the Google Play Store and Apple app store. 

    There are five modules in the app: Administrator module, registration module, vaccination module, beneficiary acknowledgment module, and report module. 

    The administrator module is for the administrators who will be conducting these vaccination sessions.

    The registration module is for people to get registered for vaccination. It will upload bulk data on co-morbidity provided by local authorities or by surveyors.

    The vaccination module will verify the beneficiary details and update the vaccination status.

    The beneficiary acknowledgment module will send SMS to beneficiaries. It will also generate QR-based certificates after you are vaccinated.

    The report module will prepare reports on the number of vaccine sessions, people vaccinated and dropped out cases.

    ALSO READ: Medical team from Kerala joins CSIR-IGIB to study vaccine’s effect in controlling mutated virus

    Here’s a step-by-step guide: 

    Self-register on the CoWIN website

    Upload Aadhaar for authentication or use any photo identity issued by the government 

    The authentication can happen via biometrics, OTP, or other demographic information

    Once registered, you will be allocated a date and time for vaccination

    Your district authorities will be the approving authority 

    They will regulate the session management in CoWIN system and allocate you session and site for vaccination

    The CoWIN system will generate QR-based certificates after you are vaccinated

    Where will I be vaccinated?

    Vaccination will be conducted at three types of sessions sites:

    Fixed session site: Government and private health facilities – where either a medical officer or a doctor is available is defined as a fixed session site.

    Outreach session site: Sites such as schools and community halls

    Special mobile session: For those living in remote, hard-to-reach areas

    What will be the process for vaccination at the session site?

    The vaccination site will have three rooms:

    Waiting room: Wait here for your turn before you get the vaccine

    Vaccination room: It’s the place you will be administered the vaccine 

    Observation room: You will be observed for 30 minutes post-vaccination