Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday that the world is keeping a close watch on the safest and cheapest vaccine against COVID-19 and is looking towards India.
“Our scientists are very confident of succeeding in their endeavour of making COVID vaccine. The world is keeping a watch on the cheapest & safe vaccine. That is why the world is watching India,” Modi said.
“Experts believe that COVID vaccine will be ready in the next few weeks. As soon as scientists give a green signal, vaccination will start in India. Healthcare, frontline workers & elderly person suffering from serious diseases will be given priority in vaccination,” the PM added.
PM also said thathealthcare warrior and the elderly will receive the first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine while reiterating that India has ‘managed to keep the death rate low’.
States have been asked to accelerate the process of identifying frontline healthcare workers including doctors, MBBS students, nurses and ASHA workers etc so that the exercise gets completed in another one week.
It has asked states to do planning and mapping of vaccination sessions where healthcare workers will be vaccinated during the 1st phase and mapping human resources across departments that could be deployed for vaccination sessions for verification of beneficiaries, crowd management and overall coordination.
(With inputs from agencies)