COVID-19 Vaccination drive to start soon: Harsh Vardhan

Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said the government is in the process of ensuring vaccination of all and the drive will start soon.

Vardhan was here to oversee the anti-coronavirus vaccination dry run at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital and also the storage facilities for the Covid-19 vaccine.

He said India has developed two anti-coronavirus vaccines which have been sanctioned for emergency use and this has happened within a year after the Covid-19 pandemic broke in the country.

Speaking to reporters Vardhan said the Covid-19 vaccine will be administered first to the healthcare professionals, frontline workers, army and para military personnel, sanitary workers.

He said in the next phase, people aged over 50 years and those below 50 but with comorbidities will be vaccinated first.

He also said with two neighbouring countries reporting polio virus cases, the nation has to take precaution.

Vardhan said January 17 will be termed as the National Immunisation Day Against Polio and appealed that all the children who are less than five years of age will be inoculated with two drops of polio vaccine.

According to Vardhan, in January 2011, the country saw the last case of polio.

He said virtually all the countries in the world have eradicated polio but two neighbouring countries still have significant numbers of polio cases and, hence Indian population is at risk.

( With inputs from IANS )