COVID-19 vaccines will be made available in the next few days: Harsh Vardhan

The COVID-19 vaccines would be madeavailable 'to the countrymen' in the next few days, givingpriority to those at risk such as healthcare professionals,Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan said here on Friday.

The Centre has started a new COVID platform to trackparticulars of potential vaccine beneficiaries and also issueelectronic certificates to them, he said.

''We are in the process of ensuring that in the next fewdays, also in the near future, we should be able to give thisvaccines to our countrymen, starting with of courseprioritising those who are most at risk, our healthprofessionals, healthcare workers in the public and privatesector followed by frontline workers,'' he told reporters.

The overall scheme of administering vaccination, whichplaces importance on healthcare professionals, frontlineworkers like police and for others in subsequent stages, hasalready been made known to all stakeholders, he said.

Hours later,asked when the vaccination drive shall start,he told journalists, ''you will get to know about it soon.'' The union minister, after inspecting the dry run at theRajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and the Tamil NaduGovernment Multi Super Specialty Hospital here, expressedcomplete satisfaction over the preparations.

He said the Integrated Vaccine Complex of HLL BiotechLimited (HBL), which has remained non-functional for sixmonths, would soon be optimally utilised to produce COVID-19vaccines.

The government has spent over Rs 600 crore to establishthe state-of-the-art facility at nearby Chengalpattu, he said.

HBL is a 100 per cent subsidiary of HLL Lifecare Limited,a Government of India Enterprise under the Ministry of Healthand Family Welfare.

India, he said, has done extremely well in developingvaccines in the shortest possible time, and two vaccines havebeen given emergency use authorisation.

In a country that is vast like India with a population of1.35 billion, everything was done smoothly and meticulouslywithout any glitches.

Earlier, the government used to track the vaccine interms of the temperature it was stored.

''Now we started the new COVID platform in tracking thedetails of potential beneficiaries, places where they arelikely to get the shots, pre and post vaccination, includinggiving an electronic certificate and follow it up with thesecond dose with detailed text messages and reminders,'' theMinister said.

The details of this 150-page document has been sharedwith all stakeholders to make the vaccination drivesuccessful, he added.

The Union Minister lauded Tamil Nadu for handling thecoronavirus pandemic successfully, be it meticulous planning,tracing, the 100 per cent RT-PCR testing, besides theexcellent facilities in the government sector for patients anda continuing decline in new daily cases.

''Sincerely appreciate the exemplary work done by theGovernment of TN in collaboration with the centre in fightingCOVID-19 They have done well to contain the spread of thevirus,'' he tweeted.

Vardhan, after visiting Chief Minister K Palaniswami atthe secretariat, said he requested him to focus a little moreon eliminating tuberculosis by 2025, five years ahead ofinternational goals.

''India has set an ambitious target to end TB by 2025,fiveyears ahead of the global target.Tamil Nadu can set an examplefor all other states by achieving this target earlier.'' Also, the minister said he took up the centre's healthand wellness programme with Palaniswami, for taking forwardthat initiative in Tamil Nadu.

The Centre plans to establish 1.5 lakh centres, focusingon preventive, promotive and positive health in all parts ofthe country, he said.

In such initiatives as well, he wanted Tamil Nadu toexcel, he said.

''We want Tamil Nadu to excel and do things well in time,when the Prime Minister delivers a new India for all Indiansby 2022 end,'' the minister said.

On the national dry run today, Vardhan said it was afollow up to similar exercises in December and January 2.

It was a sort of a 'mock' exercise for ensuring thatpreparation was thorough for the roll out of the vaccinationdrive, he said. On Friday, it is was held across the country,barring three states that had earlier completed it, he said.

According to the Tamil Nadu government, the dry run wasconducted in 226 locations across the state.

A year of action has led to the country having onemillion testing kits per day from a mere one when the pandemicstarted.

''We are able to export PPE kits, N95 masks andventilators - almost everything that people used to talk aboutshortage then. Things transformed for the better due to theinspiration given by the prime minister for the development ofAtma Nirbhar Bharat,'' Harsh Vardhan said.

During his visit,Vardhan also visited the General MedicalStore Depot at Periamedu here, which is one of the fournational vaccine storage facilities in the country andreviewed the preparation.

The union minister was presented a memento and asculpture of Lord Nataraja by Chief Minister Palaniswami.