Coronavirus vaccine delivery system should be like election planning: PM Modi

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday chaired a meeting to review the arrangements for the delivery and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine whenever it becomes available for the nation. He mentioned how India has successfully conducted elections, similarly states, UTs and civil society organizations must come together in this.

He also called for "speedy access" to the vaccine for all members of the population and directed officials to keep in mind the "geographical span and diversity of the country" when planning logistics.

Prime Minister also stressed on the fact that each and every process involved in the process must be tested rigorously.

A National Expert Group on Vaccine Administration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC) is working in consultation with states and UTs, as well as all relevant stakeholders, to prepare a detailed blueprint for the storage, distribution and administration of the Covid vaccine, the government said.

Recently, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had said that the government has plans to vaccinate around 25 crore people in India, with preference to the ones working in healthcare by July 2021.

This is the second such meeting the Prime Minister has led in the past 48 hours and comes after the Health Ministry reported an "unprecedented" achievement this morning - that active Covid cases in the country dropped below eight lakh for the first time in 46 days.

Three potential vaccines are in advanced stages of development in India, of which two are in Phase II and the other - Covishield, which was developed jointly by the University of Oxford and pharma giant AstraZeneca - is in Phase III.

India recorded around 62,000 new coronavirus cases in last 24 hours.