Vaccine doses for state expected from Tuesday, over 500 vaccination sites ready: Maharastra health director

At least 16,500 vaccinators have been trained. “We have trained state, district and block-level officers,” said Dr Patil.

“There are 4,000 cold chain points. We have asked the Centre for six walk-in coolers and four walk-in deep freezers. We currently have 21 walk-in freezers and have stepped up our preparedness at eight sites — Nagpur , Akola, Aurangabad, Pune, Kolhapur, Thane, Latur and Nashik, including re-checking the power connection,” said Dr Patil.

State health authorities have also asked the Centre to supply 600 ice-lined refrigerators and 150 deep freezers. “Of these, we have got 101 ILRs,” said state Immunisation Officer Dr D N Patil.

Till late on Monday, state health authorities said they were yet to receive an order from the Centre on the number of vaccine doses that will be supplied for Maharashtra. “We are anticipating 16-17 lakh vaccine doses,” said Dr Patil.

Emergency kits have been supplied to vaccination sites across government and district health centres. Meanwhile, there are two refrigerated vans with the state Health Department and authorities said they can make provisions for transport vans from the regional office of the deputy director of health.

Dr Santosh Deshpande, Pune district immunisation officer, said there are 55 vaccination sites in the district, including 16 each in Pune Municipal Corporation and Pimpri-Chichwad Municipal Corporation areas. There are a total of 99156 healthcare workers enrolled as beneficiaries on the CoWIN software, of which 47,051 are from PMC areas, 20,027 from Pimpri-Chinchwad, while 32,078 are from Pune rural.

Private hospitals in Pune Municipal Corporation areas, which have been treating Covid-19 patients, will also get doses to vaccinate their healthcare workers. PMC Immunisation Officer Dr Amit Shah said that so far, 16 vaccination sites have been identified, including Sassoon General Hospital, Kamala Nehru Hospital, Ruby Hall Clinic, Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, Noble Hospital and Joshi Hospital, among others.

Ensure all beneficiaries for vaccination registered: Centre to states

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has directed state Health departments to ensure that all beneficiaries for vaccination against Covid-19, including healthcare workers and frontline workers, are registered on CoWIN software. The database of healthcare workers on CoWIN software will be frozen on January 12, according to an email from Dr Mahesk Kumar Aggarwal, Additional Commissioner of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, which has been sent to state Health Departments.

The Union ministry has also said that the database of frontline workers on CoWIN software will be frozen on January 25. “We have repeatedly communicated that only pre-registered beneficiaries on CoWIN will receive Covid-19 vaccine,” Dr Aggarwal has said in the email,

State governments and union territories have been actively involved in uploading the database of initial priority groups for vaccination, which is then uploaded on the CoWIN software. “After the database for healthcare workers and frontline workers is frozen as per the timeline, no addition of beneficiaries on CoWIN will be permitted,” said Dr Aggarwal.