31,700 health workers to be vaccinated across Uttar Pradesh on Saturday

The state has so far received over one million vaccine doses against 1.1 million sought for the first phase

As many as 31,700 health workers across Uttar Pradesh’s 75 districts will get Covid-19 vaccination on the first day of the inoculation campaign on Saturday when 317 sessions of the immunisation will be held at 311 centres, officials said. The state has so far received over one million vaccine doses against 1.1 million sought for the first phase.

The first lot of Covishield Covid-19 vaccines arrives at the vaccine store at MMG hospital in Ghaziabad on January 14. (Sakib Ali/HT photo)

Additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad said the drive will start at 9am and will continue till 5pm. “A maximum of 100 people will be vaccinated in each session.”

Chief secretary RK Tiwari said in the first phase, two vaccination sessions would be organised each week and the plan should be chalked out in a manner that all the health workers get covered in three days.

Prasad said frontline workers chiefly from the state and central police departments, paramilitary forces, home guards, civic bodies, etc will be on the priority list for the second phase. He added people above 50 and those with co-morbidities such as diabetes, respiratory diseases, cancer, high blood pressure, etc will be vaccinated in the third phase.

“The first phase activities are to be largely organised in government hospitals, health centres, block-level primary health centres, district hospitals, district women’s hospitals, urban health centres, railway hospitals, government and private medical colleges,” he said. “Also, big private hospitals in urban areas having more than a hundred workers too are likely to have vaccination sessions as per need.”