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Ghaziabad, GB Nagar to vaccinate first batch of 1000 healthcare workers at 10 centres
Starting Saturday 10
Starting Saturday 10.30 am, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad will begin inoculating front line health care workers against Covid-19 with the Covishield vaccine.
According to district officials, the state government had asked them to prioritise beneficiaries over 40 years of age and that a vaccine vial, once opened, should be administered in four hours.
The pandemic, since March last year, had claimed 193 lives in the two districts and infected 51,700 people, till Friday. Around 99% of all cases had been cured and there were 481 active cases, according to latest release from the Uttar Pradesh health department.
The vaccination drive will be conducted in 10 centres -- Gautam Budh Nagar six and Ghaziabad four (one more centre was added on Friday). Each centre will inoculate 100 people.
The district administrations will hope that the lessons learnt during the dry run on January 5 will hold them in good stead during the actual drive. Every beneficiary has already been intimated about their date and time for the vaccine throught the Co-WIN app, a digital platform developed by the central government to track the vaccination drive.
Ghaziabad chief medical officer Dr NK Gupta said that the vaccination will be administered at community health centre at Dasna, Santosh Medical College at Pratap Vihar, district women’s hospital and Yashoda Hospital at Kaushambi on Saturday.
“The required number of vaccines vials has been sent to the centres,” Dr Gupta said, adding that the district has about 21800 healthcare workers.
Priority to those over 40 years
Government officials also said that the senior state officials on Friday held a video conference with all districts and said that of the first batch of vaccine received in the state, priority will be given to health care workers aged over 40 years while others will also get the shots once fresh batch of vaccine arrives further.
On Thursday, Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar districts received 2884 and 2741 vials respectively, each having 10 doses, from the storage depot at Meerut. The sources said that the officials during the video-conferencing have also been told that once the vial gets opened at the vaccination centre, the doses should be administered within four hours.
The vaccine, manufactured by the Pune-based Serum Institute of India, is required to be stored between 2°C and 8°C.
“There are strict instructions that the beneficiaries must be administered vaccine as per their allotted scheduled number and no one would get any preference,” the above quoted official added.
The list of six centres in Gautam Budh Nagar district has remained unchanged and the officials said that the vaccination will take place at Super Speciality Paediatric Hospital & Post Graduate Teaching Institute Noida, Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) Greater Noida, Sharda Hospital in Greater Noida, Kailash Hospital and two community health centres in Bhangel and Bisrakh.
“The health department has successfully dispatched around 100 doses of vaccine at each place. We also held a video conference and discussed preparations for the vaccination exercise. The programme will be done smoothly,” said Suhas LY, district magistrate of GB Nagar.
There are 24453 registered health workers in the district who would undergo vaccination in the coming days.
Ajit Kumar, spokesperson of Sharda Hospital, said that the hospital received 11 vials on Friday.
“We had a video meeting with government officials. The hospital management has been told to ensure proper safety of the campus and unwanted persons’ entry would be restricted,” he said further while adding that the vaccination program will be conducted from 8.30 am to 5 pm.
