Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare chose to be with doctors, nurses and other healthcare and frontline workers at AIIMS, New Delhi on this momentous day when the Prime Minister launched the world’s largest COVID-19 vaccination drive.

He applauded their selfless devotion and commitment to the nation’s fight against COVID-19, as the a sanitation worker Shri Manish Kumar became the first recipient of the vaccination drive at AIIMS, New Delhi.

Describing the exercise as the start of the climax of the pandemic that started a year before, Dr. Harsh Vardhan said, “The Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has been personally involved in the management of the pandemic since the start. Today marks the culmination of five months’ hard work on rolling out the COVID vaccines.”

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji launched the COVID-19 vaccination drive at 10:30 AM via video conferencing.

The Minister marvelled at the span and scope of the world’s largest COVID19 vaccination drive. “3006 session sites across all States and UTs held the exercise simultaneously today with around 100 beneficiaries vaccinated at each of the sites. With a population of 138 crore and a history of Universal Immunization Program which involves targeted vaccination against twelve vaccine preventable diseases, India stands at the cusp of recording history and shows the way to peers across the globe. After Smallpox and Polio, it is the turn of COVID. All the remote, hard to reach areas, urban slums, tribal belts are all covered in today’s exercise.”

Dr Harsh Vardhan elaborated on the preparations that were taken up for this huge exercise:- “More than a lakh vaccinators were trained; multiple mock exercises were conducted; a pan-India national exercise was also conducted to hammer out the slightest glitches. Technology was used to bolster performance as the eVIN platform was repurposed to CoWIN (Winning over COVID), SMS sent to all beneficiaries since the last two days (for today’s session) which would be repeated on schedule for their second dose and across all beneficiaries in all sessions”.

The Health Minister added that efficient teamwork and staunch political commitment formed the bedrock of this massive exercise. “The Prime Minister and all the Chief Ministers along with my fellow colleague Health Ministers have worked as a team and made history today”, he said.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan overlooks as the 1st Vaccine is administered

Dr. Harsh Vardhan took the occasion to remind everyone of the significant milestones achieved against COVID in the last year. He observed, “The pro-active, pre-emptive and graded approach with a meticulous monitoring of the trajectory of the disease, effective clinical management have enabled a valiant fight against it and saved our people to a very large extent. India has the highest recovery which is more than 96% and the lowest fatality rate below 1.5%.” Calling the vaccines the ‘route to victory’, he remarked “The COVID19 vaccine will be remembered like a Sanjeevani for clinching the victory over COVID.”

Dr. Harsh Vardhan remembered the brave sacrifices made by the COVID Warriors who helped others putting their own lives at risk while defending the decision to give the vaccine first to healthcare workers in the private and public facilities alike. He also congratulated the common people of India who have enthusiastically contributed in the trials of the vaccine.

He also stressed on the need to counter the rumours and myth mongering in relation to administering of COVID19 vaccines. He also appealed people not to be misguided by the misinformation campaigns and believe only credible and authentic information. Dr. Harsh Vardhan noted, “The whole country has been waiting for life to return to normal. People have lost their near and dear ones. These few people who are misleading others into questioning the integrity of the process are being unfair to the sacrifices made by the common people and the future of our society.”
 

Dr. Randeep Guleria, Director AIIMS and Dr. V.K. Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog and Chair, National Expert Group of Vaccine Administration for Covid-19 (NEGVAC) also received vaccination at AIIMS today.

After the visit to AIIMS, New Delhi, the Union Health Minister visited the vaccination site at Gangaram Hospital, where he interacted with the healthcare and frontline workers and saluted their spirit of serving the nation. “We have been safe because of your continued and selfless wor for so many months”. 

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MV/SJ