The union health ministry has asked states to submit lists of priority population that would receive COVID-19 vaccine first by October end.
Priority population refers to those who are at a higher risk of contracting the virus than others.
This was stated by union health minister Harsh Vardhan on Sunday while addressing his weekly programme Samvaad.
“Our government is working round the clock to ensure there is a fair and equitable distribution of the vaccines once they are ready,” he said.
“Just like everywhere else in the world, our government’s utmost priority is to ensure vaccine for each and every person in the country,” he added.
“There is a high-level expert committee looking into all aspects of vaccines,” the minister further said.
He further informed that the union health ministry is preparing a format in which the state will provide a list of priority population to receive vaccines, especially frontline health care workers.
“We have set a realistic deadline of October end to complete this humongous exercise,” he added.
He further informed that the states are also being closely guided to submit details of cold-chain facilities and other infrastructure.
“Our rough estimate and target would be to receive and utilise 400-500 million doses for 20 crore people by July 2021. All this is under various stages of finalisation,” the minister further added.