India will launch its COVID-19 vaccination drive from January 16 in what Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the world's largest inoculation programme. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch India's COVID-19 vaccination drive on January 16 via video conferencing, even as adequate doses of Bharat Biotech's 'Covaxin' and Serum Institute's 'Covishield' vaccines have been delivered across the country to all states and Union territories. The Union health ministry has laid down list of precautions and contraindications for the inoculation, along with a comparative factsheet for both the vaccines - Covishield and Covaxin.
The Union Health Ministry has informed all states and union territories that interchangeability of COVID-19 vaccines is not permitted, and pregnant and lactating women should not be administered the shots as they have not been part of any anti-coronavirus vaccine clinical trial so far.
A dose of Covishield and CoVaxin may cost in the range of ₹200 to 295 in India. The full initial procurement amount of 1.65 crore doses of COVISHIELD and COVAXIN vaccines have been allocated to all states and Union Territories in the proportion of Health Care Workers database, the Health Ministry has said.
