Wait ends on Jan 16: State to open 129 centres for phase 1
Jharkhand has identified 1.27 lakh front line health care workers for first phase of the drive; 100 people to be given shots at each centre every day
RANCHI: Jharkhand is all geared up for the first phase of vaccination drive against coronavirus disease across 24 districts beginning from January 16 in the country, health officials said on Monday.
The state health department has readied 129 centres for the launching day of the mass inoculation drive on January 16. The department has decided to administer shots to 100 people each at the centres every day, officials said.
The state is expecting arrival of vaccine shots by January 14, even though the Centre is yet to communicate the state in this regard.
State level nodal officer (vaccine) Dr Ajit Prasad said, “We have done all preparations for the mass inoculation drive. As many as 129 centres have been readied to start the drive across the state on the very first day. The number of centres will be increased thereafter. Vaccine shots will be administered to 100 people at each centre every day from day one.”
Prasaid said as many as 1.27 lakh front line health care workers comprising doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers, sahiyas and sanitation workers have been identified as vaccine beneficiaries in the first phase in Jharkhand. Besides, two rounds of dry run have been successfully conducted in the state to train those associated with the mega drive.
The state health department carried out hassle-free dry run for Covid-19 vaccination on January 2 and January 8. The first mock drill was carried out at 13 locations across six districts on January 2, while the second dry run at 222 locations across all 24 districts in the state.
Jharkhand’s two immunisation centres would be linked to the Union health ministry through video conferencing for the first two days of the mega drive.
“Ranchi’s sadar hospital and Jamshedpur’s MGM Hospital will be connected live to the Ministry of Health,” he said.
The state has so far set up 275 cold chain points for proper storage of vaccines. This comprises one state-level and three regional-level vaccine stores, 24 district vaccine stores and the rest block-level vaccine stores.
The state-level vaccine store is in Ranchi and regional-level vaccine stores have been set up in Deoghar, Palamu and Jamshedpur.
As per the state health officials, as many as two lakh front line workers including police personnel, armed forces, home guards, jail workers and disaster management coordinators, municipal workers and people associated with social security organizations would be administered vaccine shots in the second phase of the drive, while 62.97 lakh people above 50 years of age would be administered shots in the third phase.
State reports 145 new cases, two more deaths
Jharkhand’s Covid-19 tally rose to 1,16,817 as 145 more people tested positive for the infection, a health department official said on Monday.
The Covid-19 death toll increased to 1,047 as two more persons succumbed to the infection in the last 24 hours, he said.
The new cases were reported from Ranchi district (86), East Singhbhum (23) and Dhanbad (7), the official said.
The state now has 1,468 active cases, while 1,14,302 patients have recovered from the disease, he said.
Jharkhand tested 12,316 samples for Covid-19 in the last 24-hours, the official added.