The first shot of COVID-19 vaccine in India is likely to be given on January 13. Union Health Ministry Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on January 5 confirmed the development during a press briefing. The development came days after the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) approved the emergency use of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin & Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield for restricted emergency use. The announcement by the government came amid the growing number of the highly infectious strain of mutant COVID-19 that is reaching India with people returning from the United Kingdom. The vaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities. On January 2, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had announced that one crore frontline will get the vaccine for free.
