Covid-19 vaccine to be administered at six sites on Jan 16

The Covid-19 vaccine will be administered to nearly 600 healthcare workers at six session sites in Gurugram on January 16, said senior health officials, with a decision on further vaccinations to be taken once the procurement and distribution plans are finalised at the state level

The Covid-19 vaccine will be administered to nearly 600 healthcare workers at six session sites in Gurugram on January 16, said senior health officials, with a decision on further vaccinations to be taken once the procurement and distribution plans are finalised at the state level.

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Only a limited number of session sites have been given the go-ahead to smoothly conduct vaccinations on the launch day, said health officials. “A decision on vaccination post-January 16 is yet to be taken by the state government. It will depend upon the vaccine stock and distribution strategy,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

Of the 5,000 session sites across the country, where vaccine administration will start this week, at least 113 are in Haryana. About 11,000 healthcare workers in 22 districts are set to get the first dosage. However, officials did not disclose which vaccine would be administered during the drive.

“As directed by the state, only six sites have been selected in Gurugram for the vaccine launch. But we are prepared with 161 sites, in case the vaccination gains pace next week,” Yadav said.

In Gurugram, over 36,000 healthcare workers, both from government and private set-ups, are registered for the vaccination. According to Yadav, whenever the full-fledged vaccination drive starts, they will try giving a vaccine shot to all healthcare workers in the district within three days.

At the six identified sites — government primary schools in Wazirabad and Daulatabad, Chauma urban primary health centre, Bhangrola primary health centre, SGT Medical College in Chandu Budhera and Medanta Hospital — a dry run was conducted at four sites on January 7. Two private hospitals — SGT and Medanta — are the new sites added to the list.

On January 16, the Wazirabad session site has been chosen for interaction with Prime Minister Narendra Modi through videoconferencing. The Wazirabad site is one of the two session sites in the state, with the other being in Panchkula, chosen for the videoconference. Other session sites will have a webcast of the event, said Yadav.

For making the system robust before the vaccination day, another dry run was planned on January 14 at 161 sites in the district. The drill, however, has been cancelled due to lack of clarity on the vaccination schedule, confirmed MP Singh, the district immunisation officer.

On Monday, Yadav held a meeting with medical officers from 21 private hospitals, urban primary health centres and community health centres. He directed them to strictly adhere to the dos and don’ts. A training session was also conducted for data entry operators who will have to work on the Co-WIN platform to track and update the beneficiaries list.

Yadav said that for vaccination, well-trained and experienced personnel are being deployed for smooth functioning at the session sites. Foot signage will be put at the session sites to clearly demarcate the entry and exit to prevent chaos. He said that Covid-19 vaccine will not be administered to female healthcare workers who are pregnant.