10m health workers first group in India to get COVID-19 vaccines

Not less than 10 million frontline health care workers will be the first people to receive vaccination against the COVID-19 pandemic once the vaccine is available, a local newspaper Indian Express said on Tuesday.

The newspaper quoting its sources said a vaccination group of approximately 10 million health workers have been identified.

“We have moved into an advance stage of building a database for the first priority group – frontline health care workers.

The health care workers will receive the first dose during the immunisation drive, if and when a particular vaccine is cleared by the Indian regulator for commercial use,” the newspaper quoted its sources in the expert group on vaccine administration as saying.

“We have received a substantial response from the states, 92 per cent of all government hospitals across all states have provided data.

“Around 56 per cent of private-sector hospitals have provided data,” the source said.

Development of COVID-19 vaccine is still in progress.

India’s Federal Health Minister, Harsh Vardhan, last month said COVID-19 vaccines would likely be available in India by early next year.

On Tuesday federal health ministry said the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in India had increased to 9,177,840 and the death toll to 134,218.

Globally, India is the second worst-hit country by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Edited By: Fatima Sule/Ifeyinwa Omowole
(NAN)