Patna to have 16 Covid-19 vaccination centres on Day 1

PATNA: The state capital will have 16 vaccination centres to begin the immunisation process for Covid-19 on Saturday.
DM Chandrashekhar Singh addressing a press conference ahead of the arrival of the 54,900 vials of Covishield vaccine, said, “The count of these centres will go up to 31 from the second day as 15 more places would be activated where health workers would be vaccinated.”
The DM said PMCH, NMCH and IGIMS are three government hospitals along with three private ones where the drive would get initiated on Saturday.
“The sub-divisional hospital at Barh, Danapur and Mausarhi, health centres at GGS Patna City, Bakhtiyarpur, Bihta, Dhanarua, Fatuha, Maner and Phulwarisharif are the other government places where vaccination would begin,” he said.
Singh said more than 38,000 health workers including auxiliary nursemaids and others have got themselves registered for vaccination.
The DM said vaccination doesn’t mean one should stop taking precautionary steps like social distancing, wearing masks and washing hands.
“All precautionary steps would have to continue even after vaccination as it takes 45 days for building of antibodies as per experts. People must avoid all kind of rumours,” he added.
Singh said after the first round of vaccination, outreach programmes would get initiated for all other areas.
“The district administration has made all required arrangements for transporting vaccine in temperature-controlled containers,” he said.
In reply to TOI’s query, Singh said the district administration has a storage capacity for 10,58,834 doses of Covid-19 vaccine at present. He said magistrates are deployed at the storage facility in NMCH security.
The district immunisation officer Dr AP Vinayak and ICDS district programme officer Priyamvada Bharti, who were also present at the presser, said those who have high blood sugar level or pressure as co-morbidity must bring down the parameters to normal range only after which they should go for vaccination.
Both officers said after vaccination, the person would be kept under observation for 30 minutes.
“There would be ambulances and other facilities at these centres for taking anyone to hospital after vaccination if required,” they said.
Both officers also clarified that people may develop mild symptoms just like those develop after taking other vaccines but one must not worry about it.