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74-year-old doctor with comorbid conditions is Pune's first vaccine beneficiary
At least 100 beneficiaries, mostly staff at respective hospitals, are expected to be vaccinated at the eight centres in city.
A 74-year-old senior doctor, a diabetic, became the first beneficiary to be vaccinated with Serum Institute’s Covishield vaccine at Pune Municipal Corporation’s (PMC) Kamala Nehru hospital Saturday morning.
At least 100 beneficiaries, mostly staff at respective hospitals, are expected to be vaccinated at the eight centres in city. The administration reported technical glitches as the CoWin app reportedly crashed forcing the hospital staff to manually verify registered beneficiaries.
Amidst a ceremonial moment, the first beneficiary of Covid-19 vaccination under the first phase was vaccinated at around 11 am on the fifth floor at Kamala Nehru Hospital. Dr Vinod Shah, 74, was relieved that he could now step out with safety precautions in place.
Dr Shah practices at Kamala Nehru hospital and is a consultant at other hospitals. Dr Nitin Abhyankar, 57-year-old physician and a diabetic, also received the Covishield vaccine.
Dr Shah said, “I was forced to provide consultation and diagnosis to patients via phone or computer since the past ten months due to my age and comorbidities. The vaccine has boosted my confidence. After the second dose, I am sure that I will be able to step out by following the Covid safety measures.”
Dr Abhyankar said, “I have treated over 600 Covid patients and seen deaths because of the virus. With this vaccine in place, we hope to see no more deaths. Vaccine is definitely a game changer.”
The hospital reported technical glitches during the first few hours of vaccination drive. One of the staff handling the registration process at Kamala Nehru hospital said, “The site crashed and we had to manually verify each beneficiary. We received the list last night and are vaccinating beneficiaries who turned up and not according to the software.”
Dr Ashish Bharti, PMC health chief present at site, said, “We had alerted authorities about technical glitches last night and had to manually carry out beneficiary verification. Since most of the government staff are already present at the hospital, we might not face a major issue throughout the day. However, major hospitals like Sassoon General Hospital and private hospitals whose staff are working in shifts had to call their off-duty staff back to the hospital for vaccination. The state is insisting to vaccinate only as per the software list, but the site is not working even on mobile.”
The beneficiaries were explained about the possible adverse effects and details of the vaccine, including how much dose (0.5 ml) is being injected, which vaccine is being injected and they have to return for second phase vaccination on the 28th day.
PMC mayor Murlidhar Mohol, PMC commissioner Vikram Kumar, additional commissioner Rubal Agrawal and divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao were also present at Kamala Nehru hospital for vaccination.
