File photo: Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be meeting chief ministers of all the states on Monday to discuss coronavirus vaccine rollout. The meeting, which will be held via video conferencing, is expected to take place at around 4 pm. The development has come on the day when the nation is undergoing another vaccine dry run to check systems and overcome shortcomings if any. On Sunday, the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved two vaccines — Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishiefd and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin — for emergency use authorisation. Mass vaccination to the priority sector is likely to start by next week.
Earlier in the day, the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said the government is in the process of ensuring vaccination of all and the drive will start soon. Vardhan oversee the anti-coronavirus vaccination dry run at the Rajiv Gandhi Government Hospital in Chennai 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.
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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 poliovirus cases, the nation has to take precautions.
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(With inputs from IANS)
