Covid-19 Inoculation Drive: Check How Your State Is Geared Up For The Process

Covid-19 Inoculation Drive: 300 million frontline workers are expected to get the vaccine dose in the first phase. Meanwhile, people above 50 years of age and with comorbidities will be vaccinated in the second phase.

A close-up of a Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine

As the country is preparing for the mass immunization drive against Covid-19, the state governments across the country have braced up and are waiting for the final nod from the Central Government to start the vaccination drive. As per estimates, 300 million frontline workers are expected to get the vaccine dose in the first phase. Meanwhile, people above 50 years of age and with comorbidities will be vaccinated in the second phase. To prepare for the vaccination, the state government officials said the data of frontline workers have been updated on the central government portal. The officials said that various task forces have been set to implement the Centre’s guidelines on vaccination. READ | 'Covaxin Safe Like Water, Phase-3 Efficacy Data By March', Says Bharat Biotech Chairman Here’s How the Different States Have Prepared For Vaccination: Kerala Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja said the state has fully geared up to carry out the massive drive, but no official information from the union government is available when the vaccine vials will be made available to the state but it said. “Our strategy was to delay the peak and restrict casualties and we succeeded in both. Since the state’s density of population is quite high and so is the prevalence of high incidences of lifestyle disease, we need to get more vaccines in the first stage itself. We have informed the Union health ministry about this,” said Shailaja. Maharashtra Rajesh Tope, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh said the state administration is waiting for a communication from the Centre on the availability of the Covid-19 vaccine and has done pre-runs for administering it. “The approval for Serum Institute of India’s vaccine is only for emergency use and is subject to the consent of the patient, which means no one else would be held responsible for any health complications if any, post-vaccination,” he said. According to Dr Subhash Salunkhe, chairman, communicable diseases prevention control and technical committee, the state has started preparing a list of 7,58,000 frontline workers, who will receive the vaccination in the first phase. “A detailed district-wise list of health care providers have been provided to the Centre on its Co-WIN app,” he said, adding that state will additionally provide vaccines to 30 million people. Meanwhile, Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the state vaccination task force, said, the Centre is expected to procure the vaccine and distribute it to states. “By when will this process start, we don’t know,” he said. Assam As per the data from Assam, around 1.5 lakh healthcare workers and frontline staff have been registered with the government would be administered the vaccine in the first phase which will begin most likely in February. “We have not received any confirmation from the Centre on the number of vaccine doses that Assam would get,” said S Lakshmanan, director, National Health Mission, Assam. Rajasthan Health minister Raghu Sharma said the state is fully prepared to execute vaccination from developing centres and ambulance service will be available at all the centres in case of any adverse reaction. “We have conducted dry-run at 19 places including Jaipur and even at private hospitals,” he said. Sharma said that the Centre is yet to communicate on the number of vaccines, its cost, and the procurement procedure. Karnataka Health and Education Minister of Karnataka Dr K Sudhakar said all corona warriors will be administered the vaccine in the first phase free of cost. “We will also use the existing infrastructure and the Centre will augment the additional infrastructure as required,” he said. The minister said that the vaccine is expected to be available in January itself. “We are awaiting directions from the Centre on next steps,” he said. Chhattisgarh As per the health minister of the state TS Singh Deo, the state is waiting for the vaccination drive nod as an exact date has not been decided. 2.54 lakh health workers have been registered for vaccination “In the first phase, the vaccine would be given to 2.54 lakh registered health functionaries in the state,” he said. Punjab According to Punjab’s Covid nodal officer, Dr Rajesh Bhaskar, as of now, there is no information on when will the vaccine be administered. “State has also not received any tentative plan either,” he said, adding the state has already submitted data of 1.6 lakh frontline workers to the Centre. Health secretary Hussan Lal said the vaccine will be given to about 70 lakh people in a phased manner. Telangana Eatala Rajender, Health Minster has said that the centre may supply five lakh doses in the first phase, which would be ramped up in the subsequent phases. As the vaccination can start in the second week of January, the government is setting up 10,000 vaccination centres all over the state. The vaccination for healthcare and frontline warriors is expected to be completed within three days. Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, on Sunday, said that the Covid-19 vaccine is likely to be available in Uttar Pradesh around Makar Sankranti - January 14. More than nine lakh health care workers have been enrolled in the first phase of the vaccination drive. The Uttar Pradesh government is creating 2,03,938 litre space for cold chain maintenance at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius for the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccines, said a state health department officials. Bihar Around 4.39 lakh healthcare workers will be vaccinated in Bihar and 14,724 vaccinators have been identified so far, said health minister Mangal Pandey, adding the state is in the process of giving last-minute training to its vaccinators and immunization officers. “The picture will be clear later this week,” said a Bihar government officer requesting anonymity. Around 20 million people of the state’s 120 million are expected to get the vaccine in the first phase. Jharkhand As many as 2.5 lakh health workers will be vaccinated in the first phase. A state health official said that every district would have a vaccine distribution centre from where the vaccines would be sent in refrigerated vans to block community health centres for vaccination. Uttarakhand According to reports, the state has shared data of more than 94,000 health workers for the first phase of vaccination which is likely to start in early 2021. Madhya Pradesh Dr Santosh Shukla, nodal officer for vaccination, said around .5 lakhs health workers will be administered vaccines at primary health centres, community health centres and district hospitals. He said more than 2,000 ice-lined refrigerators have been provided for storage of vaccines. “Whenever we receive the vaccines, we will start the inoculation process within the next two days,” he said, adding that all dry runs have been successful and vaccination will be done by maintaining social distancing norms. Haryana The Haryana health department will conduct a dry run across the state on January 7 as a precursor to the Covid-19 vaccine roll out to test preparedness. The department has already identified 19,000 vaccination session sites and about 5,145 vaccinators have been mapped for the process of administering the vaccine. Additional chief secretary (ACS), health, Rajeev Arora said, “The number of vaccines available and priority groups would depend on the Central government. We will expeditiously roll out the vaccine as soon as it is made available,” he said. Data of 1.9 lakh health care workers have been uploaded on the ‘CoWIN’ portal.” He added the vaccination drive will continue for over a year.