RNS: With planes carrying vaccinations flying to airports around the country, plans for the world’s largest Corona vaccination campaign have gained momentum.
The vaccines are being dispatched from various airports to small cities and towns in readiness for the inoculation exercise beginning Saturday. From Assam to Goa and from Jammu and Kashmir to Kerala, the vaccines were carefully and swiftly transported to far corners of the country.
According to sources, 95 per cent of the 1.1 crore doses of Covishield vaccine purchased by the government have been delivered and shipped to nearly 60 consignee points across India in the past two days. Of the 55 lakh doses of indigenously developed Covaxin of Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech ordered by the Centre, the first tranche of 2.4 lakh doses have been dispatched to 12 states. Health Ministry said, vaccines have been allocated to all states and UTs in proportion to their healthcare workers database.
In accordance with the national priority list, the vaccine will be first given to healthcare and frontline workers. Each vaccination session will cater to a maximum of 100 beneficiaries per day.
At least 1,62,000 doses of Covishield vaccine reached the State on Wednesday in 16,200 vials to kick-start the first phase of the vaccination programme against the Covid-19 virus on January 16, said an official of the National Health Mission (NHM).
As per details shared by the NHM, each Covishield vial contains 5 ml of vaccine and can provide shots of 0.5 ml to as many as 10 individuals. The vaccine will be distributed to the various vaccination centres across the 24 districts by January 14, health officials said.
Health Minister Banna Gupta said that the vaccination was free for all the frontline workers in Jharkhand, but there was a need to make it free for all the 3.29 crore residents of the state. The state, he said, expects to get the second lot of vaccine doses within the next 15 to 20 days in a bid to ensure that the second shot of the vaccine is provided to residents in the stipulated gap of 28 days.
Sadar Hospital in Ranchi, the largest vaccination centre in the state capital, received at least 1,897 vials of the Covishield vaccine on Wednesday. Authorities from the hospital said that necessary arrangements have been made to ensure an uninterrupted power supply in order to keep the vaccine in the desired temperature of 2 to 8 degrees Celsius here. Power generators have been installed in the hospital to maintain the optimum temperature for the vaccine in case of a power cut.
