New Delhi: India is identifying 300 million people who will receive the initial dose of a coronavirus vaccine, the Times of India newspaper reported on Saturday.
Priority will be given to workers in high-risk sectors such as police, health-care, sanitation, elderly people and those with co-morbidities, the report said, citing officials it didn’t identify. The shots, which will include a booster dose, are planned for the initial phase once a vaccine is approved for use, according to the report.
For a country of its size, a safe and quick vaccine delivery is a top priority for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s administration. The nation’s broken health-care system, already struggling to deliver adequate care before the outbreak, cannot cope with the strain of a prolonged pandemic.
The beneficiaries of vaccine in the first phase will receive an estimated 600 million doses and implementation plan aims to cover over 23 per cent of the population, according to the report. India added 62,212 new cases, taking the total infections in the country to 7.43 million as of Oct. 17, government data shows.
