New Delhi, Feb 17 (IANS): The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Wednesday said that there is a plan to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination sites manifold.

"There are plans to scale up the delivery of vaccines. There is a plan to increase the number of Covid-19 vaccination sites manifold," ministry officials said.

Currently 10,000-11,000 immunisation sessions are being conducted. It is planned to scale this four to five times of that when the next phase is started, they said.

"Presently about 2,000 private hospitals are already engaged in the vaccination effort and as we go ahead, a much larger number of private hospitals will be engaged in Covid 19 vaccination."

As per normal priority adopted across the world, first preference has been accorded to health workers and frontline workers.

Next in line will be the 50 plus population and those with co-morbid conditions for whom efforts are on to start the vaccination process in two or three weeks.

The necessary systems are put in place - such as stabilising the CoWIN platform to handle the huge demand, finalising APIs for interfacing with CoWIN platform, deciding on relevant databases for populating the data - details about the citizen such as age, address, ID etc, keeping track of progress on CoWIN platform, delivery of second dose, issue of vaccination certificate etc, the ministry said.

The stock of available vaccines is being utilised in the most effective manner with a view to ensuring that the wastage is reduced, it said, adding that the utilisation of available stock is based on present local demands and other demands such as CoVAX and supply to friendly countries.