The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has entered into an agreement with Serum Institute of India (SII) to accelerate vaccination in partnership with industry, including healthcare providers.
In a release issued by CII on Friday, it said that the vaccination drive will target communities in India’s small towns and rural areas to ensure wide coverage.
Also read: COVID-19 | Vaccination of children likely to start from August
“India’s post-pandemic growth critically rests on how soon the eligible population is vaccinated and economic activities can return to normal. CII aims to connect the community, hospitals and corporates to fast-track vaccination, and the partnership with Serum Institute will help catalyse industry participation to reach out to communities at large,” said T.V. Narendran, president, CII.
Data | COVID-19 vaccination rate improved in all States between June-July 2021
“Serum Institute is pleased to partner with CII to work with industry members in reaching out the vaccine to communities in the hinterland. While SII has manufactured the vaccine at scale within a short period of time, it is essential that all stakeholders work together towards carrying out the inoculations. Our partnership with CII will be a good way to close the gaps, as there is plenty of supply of Covishield available for distribution”, said Adar Poonawalla, CEO, Serum Institute of India.
A release issued by CII noted that as part of the pan-India vaccine demand aggregation exercise, the Confederation undertook a survey with response from over 3,000 companies in 196 cities. This identified a requirement of over 7 million single dose vaccines.
As of July 23, a total of 34,75,301 (3.4 million) single doses have been administered through 430 camps held across the country by the CII and the CII Foundation.
To further scale up the efforts of the ongoing vaccination drive, CII is now mapping the vaccination need requirement State-wise and setting up vaccination camps along with its members, focussing on reaching Tier 2/3 cities and rural areas.
The vaccination programme is accompanied by an intensive communication campaign. The initial campaign on the importance of masking with the tag line “Aap insaan hai, bhagwan nahi” ran successfully on several television channels and media. CII is now launching another campaign on vaccine hesitancy to be widely disseminated to target communities, said the release.
