All you need to know about India's Covid vaccination campaign

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India's Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 via video conferencing and adequate doses of the two made-in-India vaccines have been delivered across the country to all states and Union Territories, the government said on Thursday.

PM Modi will also launch the government's CoWIN (Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network) app, a digital platform created for real-time monitoring of coronavirus vaccine delivery and distribution, the same day.

Here is the Centre’s list of DOs and DON'Ts :

• Covid-19 vaccination is allowed only for 18 years and above.
• Pregnant women or who are not sure of their pregnancy and lactating mothers shouldn't receive the vaccine.
• Administration of Covid vaccine should be done separated by an interval of 14 days.
• The second dose should be of the same vaccine of which the first dose was administered.
• Interchanging Covid-19 vaccines is not allowed.

As per the guidelines issued to the shortlisted Covid-19 vaccination sites, healthcare workers (those registered in Co-WIN to be vaccinated) shall include not only doctors, nurses but also nursing orderlies, safai karamcharis, ambulance drivers, and would be from a mixed age group, including above 50 years.

A dedicated 24×7 hotline – 1075 – has also been set up to address questions related to the vaccine rollout and the Co-WIN software.

Nearly 3 lakh healthcare workers will get Covid-19 vaccine doses on day one. Only 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the first day.

The health ministry has said that it has asked the states and UTs to increase the number of vaccination session sites to 5,000 and more.

The cost of vaccination of healthcare and frontline workers will be borne by the Centre. Vaccines have been allotted to states and UTs based on their healthcare workers' data.

The full initial procurement of 1.65 crore doses of Covid-19 vaccines – Covishield and Covaxin– have been flown to all states and UTs for the first phase of vaccination..