New Delhi, Jan 03: India on Sunday approved two COVID-19 vaccines namely- Covishield and Covaxin , for emergency use, nearly 11 months after the first case of deadly coronavirus was detected in the country. The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) approved Serum Institute of India (SII)’s ‘Covishield’ vaccine and Bharat Biotech’s ‘Covaxin’, thus paving the way for their roll-out and administration to millions.
During a press conference on Sunday, the DGCI said, the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) gave its approval followed by the recommendation of the Subject Expert Committee (SEC) that recommended both the coronavirus vaccines for emergency use across the country.As India gears up to launch the world’s largest immunisation drive, here is how the COVID-19 vaccination process will be carried out across India.
Follow the prescribed process for vaccination:
- An individual will have to register on CO-WIN system using a valid photo ID to enroll for the COVID-19 vaccination.
- Following registration, the beneficiary will receive SMS messages on their registered mobile number.
- The 1st SMS that the person will get will be generated on confirmation of registration
- The 2nd SMS will be generated mentioning the date, time and place of vaccination
- The 3rd SMS will be generated after 1st dose of vaccination with due date of next vaccine
- The SMS process is then followed by the completion of second dose along link for digital certificate
- On vaccination site, at entry point vaccination officer-1 (Police/homeguard/civil defence) will be present for pre-checking registration of beneficiary and photo ID verification. The official will also assist in crowd management at the vaccination site.
- Vaccination officer number 2 will verify documents of the person on CO-WIN system.
- It is now that the vaccination officer will vaccinate the beneficiary after checking all the documents.
- Following vaccination, all beneficiaries should wait in observation area for 30 mins.
- The vaccination officer 4 & 5 will ensure that all vaccinated people follow the 30 mins wait time and will monitor and guide the non-registered beneficiary.
- People will then be asked to come for second doze of vaccine on the due date as per SMS received.
A helpline number has also been issued to help people with queries related to COVID-19 vaccination. The helpline number is 1075, which is a toll-free number. On Saturday, almost all states and Union Territories (UT), including Delhi, conducted a dry run. The mock drill was conducted at 285 session sites spread across 125 districts to assess the ability and readiness of authorities to administer COVID-19 shots to hundreds of millions of people.
The vaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities. The Pune-based Serum Institute has partnered with Oxford-AstraZeneca for conducting clinical trials and manufacturing ‘Covishield’ while Bharat Biotech has collaborated with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for ‘Covaxin’.
