Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday said that all Indians will be provided the coronavirus vaccine “in the next few days”, after prioritising risk groups, PTI reported. He reiterated that the first to be inoculated will be healthcare professionals and frontline workers.

“In the next few days, we should be able to give this vaccine to our countrymen prioritising those who are at risk in public and private sectors,” he said, speaking to reporters in Chennai. “The government has already made known the scheme of things. Lakhs of healthcare workers are being trained through these dry runs, and the process to train more is still going on.” Vardhan also asserted that India had done extremely well in developing vaccines in the “shortest possible time”.

The health minister was in the Tamil Nadu’s capital Chennai to review a dry run of the vaccination process at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital. He said that lakhs of health workers were being trained for the vaccination drive and necessary details were uploaded on a digital platform.

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“We started the new Covid-19 platform in tracking the details of potential beneficiaries, places where they are likely to get the shots, pre and post vaccination including giving an electronic certificate and follow it up with the second dose with detailed text messages and reminders,” Vardhan said, according to PTI.

A dry run of the vaccination was conducted on Friday in 737 districts across the country. The first massive dry run was held on January 2. Last week, the Drugs Controller General of India had approved coronavirus vaccines of the Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech for restricted emergency use in the country.

Meanwhile, India reported 18,139 new coronavirus cases on Friday, taking its tally to 1,04,13,417. toll rose by 234 to 1,50,570, and the number of active cases in the country stood at 2,25,449.

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