The Universal Immunisation Programme is one of the largest vaccination projects in the world aimed at protecting children and pregnant mothers from preventable diseases. Under it, the government provides shots for 12 vaccine-preventable diseases, such as polio, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, and hepatitis B, for free.
Each person in the immunisation list would be linked with their Aadhaar cards to avoid duplication and to track beneficiaries.
Five vaccine candidates are in advanced stages of development in India, out of which four are in Phase II/III and one is in Phase-I/II trials.
Some vaccine frontrunners are in advanced stages of trial and could hit the market by early next year, making the task of securing "last mile connectivity" and ensuring that nothing goes wrong before the shot is administered more urgent.
'Global investors expect the rupee to be more vulnerable in the downturns in the future than ever before,' notes Apoorva Javadekar.
The Centre has started the process of identifying around 30 crore priority beneficiaries who will be given vaccine in the initial phase. The Centre will procure the vaccine directly and make it available free-of-cost for the priority beneficiaries.
Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday sought keen oversight and personal indulgence of health ministers, principal secretaries and additional chief secretaries of states and union territories to lead the second nationwide mock drill on the COVID-19 vaccination scheduled to be held on January 8.
Modi government's health ministry is good at making new claims but there is no visible sign of any new programme being initiated, finds out Manoj K.
'In 2009 we had 741 new cases of polio. This was the highest in the world. We ran the most apolitical crusade ever. We had the support of every government. We were never short of funds. The central government gave us Rs 11,000 crore a year. In 2011 we had 42 new cases. From 42 to 0 was our most difficult phase,' Mission Director Anuradha Gupta tells Rediff.com's A Ganesh Nadar in an exclusive interview about India's monumental campaign to eradicate polio.
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