India's Health Ministry said on Saturday that the much-awaited coronavirus vaccination drive will start on January 16.

"It was decided that in view of the forthcoming festivals, including Lohri, Makar Sankranti, Pongal, Magh Bihu etc., the Covid-19 vaccination will start from January 16, 2021," the ministry said in a statement.

The roll-out of Covid-19 vaccine will give priority to the healthcare and frontline workers who are estimated to be around 3 crore (30 million), followed by those above 50 years of age and the under-50 population groups with comorbidities numbering around 27 crore (270 million)

On January 3, two vaccines - Bharat Biotech's Covaxin and Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield manufactured by Serum Institute of India - were approved for restricted emergency use.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired a high-level meeting to review the status of Covid-19 in the country along with the preparedness of the states and UTs for the vaccination drive. He was also apprised about the Co-WIN vaccine delivery management system. The unique digital platform will provide real-time information of vaccine stocks, their storage temperature and individualised tracking of the beneficiaries of the Covid-19 vaccine.

This platform will assist the programme managers across all levels through automated session allocation for pre-registered beneficiaries, their verification and for generating a digital certificate upon successful completion of the vaccine schedule. More than 7.9 million beneficiaries have been already registered on the platform.

More than 61,000 programme managers, 200,000 vaccinators and 370,000  other vaccination team members have been trained so far.

(IANS)