50% of Covid-19 vaccine doses to be reserved for second shot

Out of the 49,150 doses of Covid-19 vaccine — including both Covishield and Covaxin — allocated to the district, the health department will reserve 50 percent stock for the second dose until the next batch of vaccine is allocated by the Central government, said senior health officials

Out of the 49,150 doses of Covid-19 vaccine — including both Covishield and Covaxin — allocated to the district, the health department will reserve 50 percent stock for the second dose until the next batch of vaccine is allocated by the Central government, said senior health officials.

HT Image

In the first phase, roughly 25,000 front-line healthcare workers will be vaccinated out of the total workforce of over 45,000, as both the vaccines have to be administered in two doses. Officials said that the plan is to inoculate all health workers with the first dose within the next four weeks.

“The target is that by the time the first round is over, vaccine beneficiaries who got the inoculation in the first week can get the second dose on time. The current Covid-19 vaccine stock will be maintained in a manner until the next batch of vaccine arrives,” said Rajeev Arora, additional chief secretary, mentioning the strategy will be applicable across all 22 districts of Haryana.

The district health department has also prepared a micro plan for the vaccination drive from January 18 onwards, where every day over 4,600 health care workers will get the Covid-19 vaccine.

“The inoculation will take place three times in a week — Monday, Thursday and Friday — at 46 session sites. At these sites,100 people will be vaccinated daily, who have worked in Covid-19 wards directly dealing with patients. Almost 50% of the vaccine will be reserved as per the plan is to inoculate only 25,000 front-line workers in the first phase,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer(CMO).

Across Gurugram, over 44,950 health care workers have to be vaccinated, who are already registered on the Co-WIN platform. Of them, 43,070 include both private and public healthcare workers. Nearly 1,820 are those commissioned by the Central government, while 60 health workers are under the Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMS). Based on the count, the state health department on Wednesday allocated 44, 950 doses of Covishield and 4,200 doses of Covaxin.

Yadav said that all health care workers will be inoculated in four weeks. For this, 46 vaccination sites will function in the first two weeks starting from January 18. At least 31 sites will function in third week while 28 will operate in the fourth week.

“In at least 19 private hospitals, actively handling Covid-19 patients, 32 vaccination booths will be set up to inoculate front-line health care workers. Likewise, at the 14 public sites, government health care workers will get the vaccine jab,” Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, said.

On Friday, a district level Covid-19 task force meeting was held with the representatives of the private hospitals where the vaccination sites would be set up in the first week. At the identified sites, inoculation will start from 9 am onwards. An SMS will be sent to the beneficiary mentioning the date, time and location of vaccination.

Yadav said, “At every session site, different teams of vaccination officers and vaccinators are finalised. Still, representatives from private hospitals should visit the sites where vaccination will be conducted on January 16. This would help in conducting hassle-free vaccination drive in their facilities.” He also directed the private hospitals to ensure health care workers should reach the vaccination site timely to avoid any chaos at the session site.