Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said all Indians will be vaccinated once the coronavirus vaccine is available and no one will be left behind. PM Narendra Modi has also said that a national expert group has been created to manage vaccine administration and chart the path.
Speaking to The Economic Times in an interview, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “I would like to assure the nation that, as and when a vaccine becomes available, everyone will be vaccinated. No one will be left behind.”
PM Narendra Modi further added, “Of course, initially we may focus on protecting the most vulnerable and the frontline workers. A National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 has been constituted to chart the way forward.”
Speaking on the massive exercise of taking the coronavirus vaccine to the entire population of India, PM Narendra Modi said, “On logistics, more than 28,000 cold chain points will store and distribute Covid-19 vaccines to ensure they reach the last point. Dedicated teams at state, district, and local levels will see to it that vaccine distribution and administration is done in a systematic and accountable manner.”
However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi added that the coronavirus vaccine is still a work in progress and trials are on. PM Modi also said that experts will guide the administration on how to approach the distribution of coronavirus vaccine among citizens.
Globally, around 150 coronavirus vaccines are at different stages of clinical trials. In India, two indigenous Covid-19 vaccines are undergoing clinical trials, including Covaxin which is being developed by Bharat Biotech, and another by Zydus Cadila. India is also conducting clinical trials of the Oxford-AstraZeneca coronavirus vaccine.
Mean-while, India recorded a spike of 49,881 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of cases to 80,40,203, according to the health ministry data on Thursday morning.
A total of 517 people died due to novel coronavirus in the country in the last 24 hours, the fresh update by the health ministry said. With this, the Covid-19 death toll in India touched 1,20,527.
As per the health ministry’s fresh update, there are a total of 6,03,687 active cases in the country now. The total cured cases in the country stand at 73,15,989 with 56,480 new discharges in the last 24 hours.
The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) on Thursday said a total of 10,65,63,440 samples have been tested for Covid-19 up to October 28. Out of these, 10,75,760 samples were tested on Wednesday.
India is in the pole position in terms of the number of recoveries, followed by Brazil and the US, according to the Johns Hopkins University (JHU), which has been compiling Covid-19 data from all over the world.
According to JHU data, India is the second worst-hit nation in terms of Covid-19 cases after the US, while it is in the third spot in terms of fatalities globally after the US and Brazil.
