COVID-19: CII to work with Serum Institute of India; to expand vaccination across small towns, rural areas

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. The vaccine drive will target communities in India’s small towns and rural areas to ensure wide coverage.

“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 catalyze industry participation to reach out to communities at large. Overall, industry has been playing a responsible part in ensuring vaccination of workers and their families, but clearly given the scale and urgency of the vaccination program, we can complement and supplement the efforts of the government in this pivotal mission for the nation,” stated T V Narendran, President, CII.

“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.

“CII has undertaken a mission under its flagship program Project Vaccine Nation through which we have collated the vaccine requirements of CII members. In collaboration with Serum Institute and industry, CII would take the learnings to the next level and help in inoculation of the people at the grassroots,” stressed Dr Naresh Trehan, Chairman, CII National Healthcare Council and Chairman & Managing Director of Medanta – The Medicity.

As part of the pan-India vaccine demand aggregation exercise, CII undertook a survey with response from over 3000 companies in 196 cities. This identified a requirement of over 7 million single dose vaccines.

As of 23 July 2021, 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 focusing on reaching Tier 2 / 3 cities and rural areas.

The vaccination program is accompanied by an intensive communication campaign. The initial communication 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.