This is the world’s largest vaccination programme launched by Government of India, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. A multilevel institutional mechanism for governance was defined encompassing various expert bodies that focused on aspects of pandemic response such as vaccine development, planning for vaccine administration, utilization of information technology, vaccine safety surveillance etc. The structured governance helped efficient planning, scientific and evidence-based decision-making including prioritization of beneficiaries, and the successful implementation of the programme. The challenge of supply chain and logistics management was dealt with by adopting a ‘just-in-time’ approach based on pro-rata consumption by States/Union Territories. Vaccine wastage was minimized through micro-planning, regular reviews along with cross-learnings among States/Union Territories resulting in efficient utilization of each dose of vaccine. To ensure the lastmile availability of vaccines under the critical circumstances of the pandemic, alternate vaccine delivery mechanisms such as the use of helicopters, drones, boats, camels, etc. were also utilized... Read More