New Delhi, January 6: Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday had said that the first shot of COVID-19 vaccine in India is likely to be administered on January 13. “Based on the feedback of dry-run, the government is ready to introduce COVID-19 vaccine within 10 days from date of emergency use authorisation,” Bhushan had said during a press briefing. COVID-19 Vaccine First Dose in India Likely by January 13, Says Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan.

The Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Sunday had shown green signal for two COVID-19 vaccines on Sunday. AstraZeneca-Oxford developed Covishield which is being manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute in India, and Bharat Biotech's Covaxin has been approved for emergency use by the health regulator. COVID-19 Vaccine in India: Is the Coronavirus Vaccine Mandatory for All? Is It Effective? All FAQs on COVID-19 Vaccine Answered.

The state governments are gearing up for the COVID-19 immunization programme that is likely to roll out in a week's time. From setting up vaccination centre, to establishing proper cold-chain storage facilities, here are how various states preparing for COVID-19 vaccination -

Delhi

As a part of preparation for the COVID-19 vaccine roll out, a dry run was conducted at several facilities in Delhi on Wednesday. These includes Hindu Rao and Kasturba hospitals in north Delhi and Maternity and Child Welfare Centre at Sriniwaspuri.

Reportedly, the national capital is setting up around 500 vaccination centre in the first phase of vaccination programme.  The storage facilities are also getting quipped with freezers to hold vaccines in a temperature range of 2-8 degrees Celsius.

Satyendar Jain, Delhi Health Minister, on Sunday had welcomed the approval given for the emergency use of two COVID-19 vaccines. He had assured that the city government was all set for the vaccination drive as soon as any vaccine arrives.

Maharashtra

On Januray 2, the state governmnet conducted vaccination dry runs in four places including Pune, Nagpur, Nandurbar and Jalna. The state aims to complete the first phase of vaccination in 10 days from its roll out.

Th Maharashtra government has reportedly trained over 18,000 health workers in vaccination programme and set up 4,200 centres. To ensure proper storage of the vaccine, 3,145 cold chain systems are being established.

Kerala

The southern state of Kerala is among the worst COVID-19 hit state in the country. Ahead of the vaccination programme, Kerala conducted a dry run in four districts, including Thiruvananthapuram, Idukki, Wayanad and Palakkad. Around 25 health workers took part at each location and the state's preparedness was ensured.

“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," said state's health minister KK Shailaja.

Haryana

To review the preparations for COVID-19 vaccination programme, Haryana will conduct a dry run across the state on January 7 . The department has already identified 19,000 vaccination session sites and about 5,145 vaccinators have been trained for the process of administering the vaccine. The Haryana government has uploaded the data of 1.9 Lakh healthcare workers to the Co-WIN app.

Punjab

As many as 1.60 lakh health workers in Punjab will receive a vaccine against the novel coronavirus in the first phase, Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu had said on Sunday. The data of these workers have been uploaded on the Co-WIN portal.

Goa

Talking about Goa's preparation for COVID-19 vaccine progarmme, CM Pramod Sawant on Wednesday said, "We've completed the dry run for COVID19 vaccine at four sites in Goa. We are fully prepared with cold chain management system both in government departments and private sector. The cold chain management system is fully operational up to Primary Healthcare Centre level."

West Bengal

As per reports, the West Bengal government has started a training programme for around 20,000 vaccinators to impart knowledge of handling coronavirus vaccines ahead of its roll out.

After training is over, these vaccinators who have earlier been involved in administering polio and BCG vaccines, will be responsible for giving vaccine to people.

Apart from these, all the states and union territories are taking stringent measures to ensure that COVID-19 vaccination programme rolls out smoothly and efficiently.

In the first phase, the vaccine will be first offered to one crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline and essential workers and 27 crore elderly, mostly above the age of 50 years with co-morbidities. On Saturday, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan had announced that one crore healthcare workers, along with two crore frontline will get the vaccine for free.

 

 

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 06, 2021 05:02 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).