AIIMS Director and Niti Aayog member Vinod K Paul among the first to get COVID vaccine

AIIMS Director Randeep Guleria and Niti Aayog member Vinod K Paul, who heads a government panel on vaccine strategy, were on Saturday administered the first doze of COVID-19 vaccine with the launch of the world's largest vaccination programme in India by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The vaccine dozes were administered to both Guleria and Paul at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-- one of the 81 vaccination sites in Delhi -- in the presence of Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

Soon after the Prime Minister launched the Covid-19 vaccines virtually at 10.30 a.m., 34-year-old AIIMS's sanitation worker Mahesh Kumar was administered the first doze in the hospital followed by Guleria and Paul, with healthcare workers in queue. Both Guleria and Paul reportedly received the first doze of Bharat Biotech's Covaxin which has been allotted to six Centre-run hospitals.

Meanwhile, several healthcare workers were administered Covid vaccine dozes at 75 Delhi Government and private hospitals which received Covishield, developed by Oxford-AstraZeneca with Serum Institute of India. The vaccines will be first offered to the healthcare workers, frontline workers and those above 50 years of age, followed by the below 50 population with comorbidities, and finally to the remaining population based on disease epidemiology and vaccine availability in the first phase of the vaccination drive.

The vaccination drive has been planned in a phased manner, identifying the priority groups. Healthcare workers, both in government and private sectors, including Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) workers, will receive the vaccine in the first phase.