3rd phase of Vax drive to cover those above 50, beginning March — Harsh Vardhan

New Delhi, Feb. 5 (IANS): The most vulnerable age group of people in the country, those aged above 50 will get the first jab in March second week onwards, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan informed Parliament on Friday.

The Health Minister said since the drive for the second phase to cover over 2 crore frontline workers is under progress, it is difficult to announce any fixed date right now but it is expected that the third phase of the vaccination drive will start in the second, third or fourth week of March.

Replying to a question during Question Hour session of Lok Sabha, the Minister made the announcement saying “The third phase drive will cover the most vulnerable people over the age of 50”.

Vardhan said that the first phase of the world’s biggest vaccination drive, which was rolled out on January 16 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in India, had aimed to inoculate around 1 crore healthcare workers and the second phase targeted 2 crore frontline workers.

Currently, India is inoculating indigenously made Covid-19 vaccines Covishield and Covaxin.

The Minister further said that seven more vaccines are under process and India has so far administered vaccines to 5 million people across the country.

Vardhan also mentioned that 22 countries including the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Afghanistan have so far requested India to supply Covid-19 vaccines and 15 of them have been provided 161 lakh doses.

Over 96 lakh healthcare, 78 lakh frontline workers registered till Feb. 3 for Covid vaccination

New Delhi, Feb. 5 (PTI): A total of 96,28,179 healthcare workers and 78,51,249 frontline workers have been registered for Covid-19 vaccination till February 3, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

The expenditure to be incurred as operational cost for the vaccination of an estimated three crore healthcare and frontline workers is about Rs 480 crore, Vardhan said in a written reply.

The disbursement of funds for meeting the operational cost to the states and Union Territories is being done as per the beneficiaries registered on Co-WIN portal. The disbursement of the first tranche of operational cost is INR 1,23,49,14,720, he said.

In response to a question on whether the government has decided to administer the Covid-19 vaccine to the entire population free of cost on priority basis, Vardhan said the National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) provides guidance on all aspects of coronavirus vaccination including prioritisation of population groups, procurement and inventory management, vaccine selection, vaccine delivery and tracking mechanism among others.

The NEGVAC has prioritized healthcare workers and frontline workers during the initial phase of Covid-19 vaccination followed by prioritized population groups of people aged 50 years and above, and those aged less than 50 years with comorbidities, he said.

“The vaccines are being provided free of cost by the central government for vaccination of healthcare workers and frontline workers and vaccination is being implemented across all states and UTs,” he said.

As per New Drugs and Clinical Trials Rules, 2019 under Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and in light of the urgent need due to Covid pandemic, Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO), headed by the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) in consultation with the Subject Expert Committee (SEC), has granted permission to manufacture two coronavirus vaccines, after following the prescribed procedure and evaluation of pre-clinical and clinical trial data for restricted use in emergency situation.

The government is using these two vaccines that have been given the necessary approval by the CDSCO. These two vaccines are Covishield vaccine of Serum Institute of India and Covaxin of Bharat Biotech International limited.