VIJAYAWADA: The state received its first consignment of a coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, the same day when Pune-based Serum Institute of India dispatched first batches of Covishield—one of the two vaccines approved for emergency use in India. The vaccine vials were received in the presence of Krishna district collector A Md Imtiaz at Gannavaram airport near Vijayawada.
The collector said around 4.77 lakh doses were received as the nation readies to begin the ‘biggest vaccination drive’ this Saturday. “The vaccine reached safely, and a green corridor was created for its transportation to the storage unit from the airport. It was ensured that only designated health staff handle the boxes,” Imtiaz added.
The vials were taken to the State Cold Storage Centre at Gannavaram Community Health Centre under high security. Though the state government had planned to begin district-wise distribution immediately after receiving the doses, it suspended the plan.
“We had planned to start the distribution early so that each district has the doses ready for jabs from January 16. However, the Centre instructed us to wait till it issues further guidelines,” said state immunisation officer Dr Srihari.
According to officials, a total of 4,97,000 vials have been sanctioned to the state for the first phase. The remaining 20,000 vials will be of Covaxin, developed by Bharath Biotech, which will arrive on Wednesday.
As many as 3.8 lakh health workers—including Integrated Child Development Services staff—are set to get immunised at 332 session sites in the first phase, Chief Secretary Aditya Nath Das, who took stock of the arrangements ahead of the inoculation drive, said.
Later, the process will be followed for nine lakh frontline workers such as state and Central government employees, Armed forces personnel, home guards, prison staff, disaster management volunteers, civil defence staff, municipal workers and revenue employees. Then, 90 lakh people above the age of 50 years and with comorbidities will be inoculated against Covid-19. Principal secretary (health) AK Singhal said out of the 332 session sites East Godavari has the highest 33.
Stage set for inoculation
Village volunteers have been instructed to conduct a door-to-door survey for preparation of a database of co-morbid persons
The state has readied a total of 40,410 session sites, and 19 transport vehicles for vaccine distribution to districts even as it plans to hire another 26 such vehicles
It has one state and four regional cold storage centre (one each at Kurnool, Kadapa, Guntur and Visakhapatnam), 13 district vaccine storage units and 1,659 cold chain points