Prime Minister Narendra Modi will get vaccinated for Coronavirus in the second phase of the inoculation drive which was launched on January 16. According to sources, all Chief Ministers, MPs and MLAs above 50 years will also be vaccinated for covid-19.
In the first phase of vaccination drive, healthcare and frontline workers were injected with two vaccines - Covaxin and Covishield. In the second phase, people above 50 years of age and with comorbidities will be vaccinated.
India has rolled out a massive coronavirus vaccination drive under which two vaccines, Covishield and Covaxin, are being administered to frontline health workers across the country. While Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield is being manufactured by the Serum Institute, and the Covaxin is being produced by Bharat Biotech. Many states are struggling to meet the target. Hesitancy and side effects are seen as the reasons behind this.
Earlier, PM Modi in his meeting with the Chief Ministers had told them to not panic or rush for getting the vaccine shot as they would get their turn in the second round. Reportedly, Chief Ministers of states like Haryana, Bihar and Odisha had suggested that MLAs, MPs and other public representatives should be considered frontline workers and be vaccinated.
NITI Aayog member VK Paul, who heads a government committee on vaccine strategy, said, health workers who had not taken their vaccine doses which was meant for them were not fulfilling their social responsibility.
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"Please understand the whole world is clamouring for vaccines. If our healthcare workers, our doctors and nurses, if they are declining to take it, I feel sorry. I plead with them, on behalf of the government, because we don't know what shape this pandemic will take going forward," Mr Paul was quoted by a media agency.
By far hospitalisation reported from vaccine side effects has been only 0.002% of vaccine recipients. "Adverse events'' have been reported in 0.18 per cent of recipients.