New Delhi: Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Dr P K Mishra on Wednesday chaired a high-level meeting to review in detail the progress of the COVID-19 vaccination drive across the country and steps to accelerate the pace of inoculation.
During the meeting, plans to involve private sector healthcare facilities in the vaccination drive for its expansion were also discussed, the health ministry said in a statement.
The principal secretary to the PM was apprised that version 2.0 of the CO-Win digital app for self-registration of vaccine beneficiaries is ready and will be launched in the very near future, it said.
“The plans to involve private sector healthcare facilities in a significant way in the ongoing vaccination drive were also discussed. This will enable registration of the population in the 50yrs+ category for COVID vaccination, which is the third population priority group after healthcare workers and frontline workers that are presently taking the vaccine,” the statement said.
The principal secretary was briefed about the progress of the countrywide COVID-19 vaccination exercise, it said.
“As of 3 pm today, the vaccination coverage in India has crossed 9.06 million doses across healthcare workers and frontline workers. With this cumulative number, India ranks third globally after the US (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 case of 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,” it added.
The ministry said 68.3 per cent of all healthcare workers have been administered the first dose, 37.6 per cent of the eligible healthcare workers have been administered the second dose, and 28.2 per cent of frontline workers have been administered the first dose.
Mishra was informed that India has supplied COVID-19 vaccine to 13 countries as grants through the Ministry of External Affairs. These countries are Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sri Lanka, Bahrain, Oman, Afghanistan, Barbados and Dominica, the statement said.
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, it said.
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