Union health minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan said on Sunday that people of India could get a Covid-19 vaccine shot in January. India recorded 26,624 fresh coronavirus cases, 29,690 recoveries, and 341 deaths on Sunday, according to the Health Ministry.

“Our first priority has been the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. We don’t want to compromise on that. I personally feel, maybe in any week of January, we can be in a position to give the first Covid vaccine shot to people of India,” Vardhan was quoted as saying.

Earlier in the day, Vardhan also tweeted about the “steady downhill” in the country’s active Covid-19 caseload.

Vardhan also said that both the Centre and the state government are preparing for the vaccination drive in the country.

“The Central government along with state governments has been making preparations at state, district, and block levels for the past 4 months. We’ve formed task forces at state, district & block levels. Thousands of master trainers have been trained across the country. We’ve conducted training at the state level & trained over 20,0 00 workers in about 260 districts,” said Vardhan.

The vaccine will be given to around 30 crore Indians at first which includes those who are in the high-risk category such as frontline workers.

“After consultation with experts, we’ve prioritized 30 crore people for Covid vaccine. It includes health workers, frontline workers like police, military & sanitation staff, people above 50 yrs & those who are below 50 yrs but are suffering from certain diseases,” said Vardhan

He also added that India has crossed the worst part of the pandemic but there is still a need to be cautious.

“I feel that worst may probably be over, but with strong note of caution. We need to strictly follow Covid appropriate behaviour. We can’t afford to relax so major tool against COVID will ultimately be masks, hand hygiene &physical distance,” said Vardhan.

Six vaccines- one developed by Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR, second one developed by Zydus Cadila, third one by Gennova, Oxford vaccine, the trial of which is conducted by Serum Institute of India, Sputnik V vaccine which is being manufactured by Dr Reddy’s Lab, Hyderabad, in collaboration with Russia’s Gamaleya National Centre and the sixth one manufactured by Biological E Ltd, Hyderabad, in collaboration with MIT, USA are undergoing clinical trials in India.

 

Recently, the Union Health Ministry said that getting vaccinated for COVID-19 will be voluntary, and underlined that the vaccine introduced in India will be as effective as any vaccine developed by other countries. The ministry stated that it was advisable to receive a complete schedule of the anti-coronavirus vaccine irrespective of past history of infection with COVID-19 as this will help in developing a strong immune response against the disease. It said that the protective levels of antibodies generally develops two weeks after receiving the second dose.

 

The minister went on to say that with India’s top scientists and health professionals at work, the country may have the capacity to vaccinate about 30 crore people in the coming six to seven months.

He also remarked that India had one of the highest recovery rates in the world, at 95.46 percent.