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23,500 doses of Covishield vaccine arrive in Goa
The Goa government has said it is all set to vaccinate around 19,000 health workers initially with those among them who are above 50 years of age being given first priority
Goa received its first batch of Covishield vaccine for coronavirus on Wednesday morning with 2,350 vials landing in that state at around 6.30 am.
“Goa has received 2,350 vials with 10 doses each, totalling 23,500 shots of #COVID19 vaccine, today morning. The vaccines are being stored appropriately by the authorities, and would be distributed to all centres 24 hours prior to vaccination day,” Goa chief minister Pramod Sawant tweeted.
The vaccines were shipped in from Pune via Mumbai.
“The first lot of Covid-19 vaccine for Goa has reached today early morning at 0622 hrs. The two boxes received were expeditiously cleared by TEAM GOA and handed over to Health Service officials,” the Airports Authority of India Goa Airport, said in a tweet.
The Goa government has said it is all set to vaccinate around 19,000 health workers initially with those among them who are above 50 years of age being given first priority.
“There will be eight locations where vaccination will be done -- five government establishments and three private. Around 19,000 health workers from the government and the private sector have been identified to be vaccinated in the first phase, but on the first day, around 100 vaccines will be given from each centre so around 800 persons will be vaccinated,” Sawant had said.
“Health workers are first in line followed by other frontline workers, the vaccines will be voluntary and those above 50 will be given first preference. The others will receive in subsequent phases depending on the availability of the vaccine,” Sawant said.
“Our health systems are geared up and ready to issue the doses. We have had two trial runs and no substantial issues were noticed,” he added.
The Goa government has identified five government health facilities, including the apex Goa Medical College, two district hospitals and two others besides three private hospitals -- Manipal Hospital, Victor Apollo hospital and the Healthway Hospital -- for the first phase of the vaccination drive.
The state has conducted two trial runs for the vaccine roll-out on January 2 and January 8 to help identify issues that could crop up during the actual vaccination drive.
