Principal Secretary to PM chairs meeting on COVID-19 vaccination, plans to involve private healthcare facilities discussed

PK Mishra, Principal Secretary to Prime Minister, on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to review the progress of the COVID-19 vaccination drive across the country and steps to accelerate the pace of vaccination.

An official release said Principal Secretary to PM was apprised that version 2.0 of the CO-Win digital app for self-registration of the vaccine beneficiaries is ready and will be launched in very near future. Co-WIN app had faced technical glitches and slowed or stalled vaccination process.

The plans to involve private sector healthcare facilities in a significant way in the ongoing vaccination drive were also discussed in the meeting.

"This will enable registration of the population in the 50 years plus category for COVID vaccination, which is the third population priority group after the health care workers and frontline workers that are presently taking the vaccine," the release said.

Co-WIN app had faced glitches and slowed or stalled vaccination process.

The Principal Secretary was briefed about the progress of the countrywide COVID vaccination exercise.

The release said that the vaccination coverage in India has crossed 9.06 million doses across health care workers and front line workers at 3 pm today.

With this cumulative number, India ranks third globally after USA (55.2 million doses) and the UK (16.12 million doses) who have completed more than 60 days of vaccination in comparison to 31 days in India.

It was pointed out that India was the fastest country in the world to cross all the milestones from 1 million to 7 million cumulative vaccinations.

The release said that 68.3 per cent of all healthcare workers have been administered the first dose, 37.6 per cent eligible healthcare workers have been administered the second dose and 28.2 per cent of all frontline workers have been administered the first dose.

The meeting was informed that India has supplied COVID vaccine to 13 countries as grants through Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). These countries are Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Oman, Afghstan, Barbados and Dominica.

In addition, the vaccine has also been supplied to 14 countries - Bangladesh, Myanmar, Morocco, Brazil, Egypt, Algeria, South Africa, Kuwait, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia and El-Salvador - under commercial contract.

( With inputs from ANI )