DCGI has given emergency use authorisation to two candidates—Covishield from Serum Institute of India and Covaxin by Bharat Biotech.
The health ministry has targeted inoculation of approximately 30 crore people in the first phase of vaccination. This includes approximately one crore health workers and two crore frontline workers.
The data for these essential workers is ‘pre-populated’ or captured in the Co-WIN digital platform launched by the government.
India’s capability in mass inoculation has been built on the back of its successful polio vaccination programme, which caters to almost 2.6 crore newborns and approximately three crore pregnant women every year.
Once the beneficiary is vaccinated, they will receive an SMS notification with details of the dosage, followed by the date and time for the subsequent dose. They will also be provided a digital certificate with a QR code.
The rollouts of the vaccine will follow the election model. Approximately 100 people are expected to get vaccinated in a session site at a time.