All set for maiden Covid inoculation drive today

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, January 15

The district’s maiden inoculation drive against the novel coronavirus will be conducted at three government-run health facilities — Guru Nanak Dev Hospital, the Civil Hospital and the Community Health Centre, Verka — here tomorrow (January 16).

Cabinet Minister OP Soni will formally inaugurate the vaccination drive from the Civil Hospital at 11.15 am.

Chairing a meeting of the district task force, Deputy Commissioner Gurpreet Singh Khaira said vaccines would be administered to frontline workers who had been at the forefront as corona warriors to prevent its spread in the district.

He informed that the first instalment of 20,000 vaccines had been received and data of an equal number of health workers uploaded who would first receive the shots. The shots would be administered at 26 centres which had been created in different parts of the border district to reach out to all sections of society.

Each centre, which would be headed by a Senior Medical Officer (SMO), would be given 100 vials each and all arrangements had been completed. Each centre would have two teams with each team consisting of five medical officials. Each health worker would receive the second dose of the vaccine of the same firm after a gap of 28 days.

All beneficiaries were informed today through text messages on their mobile phones for vaccination. He said these doses would be given to each citizen above 18 years of age. However, expectant mothers, active Covid-19 cases and plasma therapy humans would not be administered these doses.

The Deputy Commissioner called upon people to use masks and follow social distancing norms as long as they did not receive the dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Dr Sukhpal Singh, District Immunization Officer, said vaccines had been stored at suitable places and ambulances stationed outside each centre to meet any eventuality. Before administering the vaccine, identity proofs like Aadhaar card of each beneficiary would be verified and health status checked and post vaccination their health would be monitored for the next half an hour.

Earlier, the Health Department had conducted the first dry run for the Covid-19 vaccine from three locations in the city on January 8.

23 new cases reported in dist

The district health authorities reported 23 Covid-19 positive cases on Friday. With this, the total number of positive cases increased to 14,810 today. Of these, 12 were found with influenza like illness and 11 were contacts of positive cases. No casualty was reported due to the Covid-19 in the district today. As a result, the toll stood at 567. As many as 55 patients recovered, which took recovery count to 14,153. At present, the district has 90 active cases.

About CoviShield

India has approved the AstraZeneca and Oxford University-developed vaccine which, in India, is manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (the world’s largest manufacturer of the vaccine, by volume). Covishield is the Indian name of the Oxford vaccine. While Bharat Biotech-developed Covaxin is also approved for use in India, in Punjab the Covishield vaccine will be administered during the inoculation drives. The drive would begin after the PM’s interaction with state CMs via videoconference on Saturday morning.