States told to draw up a list of priority Covid-19 vaccine beneficiaries

The Centre has advised the States to prepare databases of different groups who should receive Covid-19 vaccine on a priority basis when the vaccine becomes available, and States are currently undertaking the task, a top Health Ministry official said here on Tuesday.

“The States were also told to set up a task force under the chairmanship of State Chief Secretary on the same lines as National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration (NEGVAC) at the Centre so that they can take up the task of vaccinating priority groups as soon as the vaccine is ready for use,” said Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan during a press conference here.

The government has earlier indicated that frontline corona warriors, elderly people and those with co-morbidities would be the ones who would receive the vaccine first.

Bhushan said the States were also asked to take stock of cold chain and refrigerated vans available in their respective States for universal immunisation programme so that the same can be used for Covid-19 vaccine administration.

“The Centre is already doing it. If the States also gather such details, granular details will be available and this, in turn, would help in better planning,” Bhushan said.

He said NEGVAC is also engaging with corporate healthcare providers to know what sort of resources, including manpower, available with them that can be used for Covid-19 vaccination programme. According to Bhushan, the government has around 28,000 cold chain points, over 70,000 vaccinators and 700 refrigerated vans that are routinely used for the universal immunisation programme.

Answering a question whether there is a tendency in some districts in the country to reduce the number of tests done so that the cases detected remained low, Health Secretary said there was no reduction in tests carried out in the country and the number of tests carried out daily continued to be high. In the last seven days, for instance, there 11.47 lakh tests per day on an average, of which over 10 per cent tests were carried out by the private sector.

Indian Council of Medical Research Director-General Dr Balram Bhargava said there are three medicines which are found to be very effective if Covid-19 infects somebody. They are oxygen, cortisol and blood thinners. World over as well as within the country, efforts are going on to find more drugs that are effective clinical management of the Covid-19 infection, Bhargava said.

Meanwhile, for the first time, the number of active Covid-19 patients in the country fell below 5.5 lakh from a peak of 10.14 lakh on September 19. At 5.41 lakh, the share of active Covid-19 patients in the country in total confirmed cases is just 6.8 per cent, Bhushan said. Over 92 per cent of Covid-19 patients have already recovered, he said.

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