India plans to vaccinate 300 million people against Covid-19.

India prepares for vaccine roll out

 (50REPORT NEWS)- With a Covid-19 caseload that's surpassed 10 million people, India is the world's second worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic, trailing only the United States.

But it is aiming to lift itself out of the crisis in the coming months with a massive vaccination drive -- covering in its first phase almost as many people as the entire US population.

 

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has identified 300 million people to receive the first doses of the vaccines. The priority group is made up of 30 million health care workers, policemen, soldiers and volunteers, and 270 million vulnerable people -- mostly citizens above the age of 50 and 10 million others with serious comorbidities.

 

The producers of three leading coronavirus vaccine candidates have applied for emergency use authorization, and all of them require two doses to provide sufficient immunity. That adds up to a total of 600 million shots, and Modi's government wants to complete the whole process by August.

That's an incredibly ambitious undertaking, especially for a developing country with poor rural infrastructure and an inadequate public health system that is already buckling under tremendous pressure from the coronavirus.

 

But India also has its own advantages. As a global hub for vaccine manufacturing, its mass production lines can churn out coronavirus vaccines - developed either by Western pharmaceutical companies or domestically -faster and cheaper than most other countries.

 

When it comes to the actual vaccination process, India already has a vast, established network under its Universal Immunization Program, which inoculates about 55 million people per year. Modi has also suggested that the country can draw from its experience of organizing the world's largest democratic elections, adopting a whole of society approach that involves the participation of states, districts, civil society, citizens and experts.

 

"Every single Indian who needs to be vaccinated will be vaccinated," Indian Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan said at a news conference on December 8.