Major part of COVID-19 management is to prevent vaccine wastage: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that a major part of COVID-19 management is to prevent vaccine wastage and appealed to the youth of the country to help people above 45 to get vaccinated.

Speaking with the chief ministers during a meeting to review the ongoing COVID-19 situation, PM Modi said, "We need to prioritise what is available with us; we can't put all vaccines at one state because we need to manage the whole nation. A major part of COVID-19 management is also to prevent vaccine wastage."

The Prime Minister said the efforts are being made to improve the maximum manufacturing facility of the vaccine. Meanwhile, the development of new vaccines is also underway, he added.

PM Modi also appealed to the youth of the country to help people above 45 to get vaccinated. "Our emphasis should now be on 'test, track, treat, covid appropriate behaviour and covid management."

"We have crossed the mark of vaccinating 40 lakh people in one day," PM Modi said adding that the criteria set by the world's most developed nations are no different to the ones set by India.

He said that there is a need to impose micro-containment zones in areas where Covid-19 cases are rising. He further said that India has in the past successfully brought down the peak of Covid-19 cases and it can be done again.

"The last time, we had brought active COVID cases from 10 lakh to 1.25 lakh. The strategy that made it possible is equally effective even today," he said.

The country has been witnessing a massive surge in COVID-19 cases in recent days and registered more than 1.2 lakh new infections on Wednesday.

India had started COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 with two vaccines -- Covishield (Oxford-AstraZeneca's vaccine manufactured by Serum Institute of India) and Covaxin (manufactured by Bharat Biotech Limited).

India commenced its second phase of the COVID-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people above 60 years and those over 45 with comorbidities against the coronavirus from March 1.

The third phase began on April 1 for all above 45 years of age.

( With inputs from ANI )