Punjab receives 2.04 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine
Plans to vaccinate 1.5 lakh health workers and 3 lakh frontline workers in first phase
CHANDIGARH: With Covid-19 vaccination set to start across the country from January 16, Punjab on Tuesday got its first consignment of 2.04 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine.
The doses arrived at Chandigarh airport by a routine Indigo flight and were received by a team of the health and family welfare department led by state Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar.
The doses were taken to the vaccination store of the Punjab government in Sector 24, Chandigarh under heavy security provided by Punjab Police.
“These doses will be sent to the district headquarters on Thursday in special vans,” the nodal officer said.
Distributions to districts on Thursday
Before sending it to the districts, the state health authorities are awaiting directions from the Centre on whom to cover under the drive.
“The Union minister will tell us the ratio in which these doses have to be shared between the state, central and defence staff. Once we get directions, doses will be sent accordingly to the district health authorities,” said the nodal officer.
As per protocol, the doses of the vaccine have to be kept in temperature between 2-8 degree Celsius.
In the first phase, the government plans to vaccinate 1.5 lakh health workers and 3 lakh frontline workers, including police and security personnel and sanitation workers.
The state has already conducted two dry runs for the vaccination.
As per health minister Balbir Sidhu, the Punjab government is fully geared up for vaccination of health workers at 110 sites on January 16.
A total of 20,450 vials, each carrying has 10 doses of vaccine, were received and the beneficiary will get two doses 28 days apart.
Five vaccination sites in each district
The minister said that five sites per district have been selected for the vaccination and each site will cover 100 beneficiaries. He said that the vaccination sessions will be live-streamed from District Hospital, SAS Nagar and Government Medical College, Amritsar.
Every vaccination session will be managed by a fivemember team with defined responsibilities.
First vaccination officer will check the antecedents of the beneficiary, the second will verify beneficiaries on CoWIN, third will give the vaccine (intramuscular), fourth will in the observation room to monitor any adverse effect following immunization (AEFI) and fifth will assist in crowd control.