New Delhi | Jagran News Desk: Ahead of the start of India's inoculation drive on January 16, which is dubbed as the world's largest vaccination drive against the deadly coronavirus, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Thursday issued necessary guidelines to the states and Union Territories across the country and conveyed them a list of do's and don'ts. On the first day of the vaccination drive, at least 3 lakh health care workers will be administered with the coronavirus vaccine.
In its guidelines, the health ministry has advised the states and UTs not to administer the vaccine to children below 18 years of age, women, who are pregnant or not sure of their pregnancy, and lactating mothers should not receive the vaccine. The guidelines also stated that the interchangeability of the two vaccines is not allowed and the second dose should also be of the same COVID-19 vaccine which was administered as the first dose.
The health ministry said that pregnant women and lactating mothers are not included in the clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine at different stages, thus the health department has decided not to give them the COVID-19 vaccine in the initial stage of the inoculation drive.
The health ministry also said that an interval of at least 28 days has to be maintained between the two doses of the vaccine and its effectiveness will begin 14 days after the second dose.
Before taking the vaccine shot, people have been instructed to declare their medical history. Those who have any kind of allergy have been told to take precautions before taking the vaccine. Vaccination will have to be deferred for four to eight weeks after recovery of patients with active Covid symptoms, those who have been given plasma therapy, and those who are unwell and hospitalised for any other reason.
Prime Minister Modi will launch the pan-India rollout of the COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 at 10:30 AM via video conferencing. A total of 3,006 session sites across all states and UTs will be virtually connected during the launch and around 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated at each session site on the first day.