Centre to increase COVID vaccination sites by 5 times

NEW DELHI: Amidst rising concern over the slow speed of vaccination coverage in India, an official from the Government of India said on Tuesday, February 16, that India will soon increase the number of its COVID-19 vaccination sites by five times. According to experts, India needs to sharply increase the number of vaccinations administered per day to meet the Centre’s target of covering 300 million by August 2021. Currently, India is vaccinating around 300,000 front-line workers a day.

Vinod Kumar Paul, heading a governmental panel on vaccine strategy, told a news agency that the ongoing vaccination of front-line workers such as nurses, doctors, medical lab technicians, etc has been teaching India on how to scale up the campaign. He said that currently, India is running 10,000-11,0000 immunisation sessions, and will do four to five times of that with the start of the next phase.

India aims to begin immunizing the public from next month. After healthcare workers, priority is to be given to those over 50 years of age and those with medical conditions. India has already vaccinated 60 per cent of its 10 million healthcare workers, however, 11 of the 36 states have not yet even reached the halfway mark in vaccine administration.

Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said that the current figures of vaccine administration are not fully satisfactory and the government is working on it.