Tirupati: 2,900 healthcare workers to get Covishield on January 16

Tirupati: The Covid-19 live vaccination programme will be held at 29 session sites on the initial day in the district with two centres in each constituency. Chittoor constituency will have three centres. Entire official machinery has concentrated their attention on this programme which will be launched on January 16 through video conferencing by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

District immunisation officer (DIO) Dr C Hanumantha Rao told The Hans India that 2,900 healthcare workers will get the vaccine on the launching day at 29 centres. A total of 41,500 doses of Covishield vaccine have reached the district vaccine store at Chittoor on Wednesday afternoon.

All the required material like vaccine carriers, cold boxes etc., have already reached the vaccination centres. Syringes and vaccine doses will be sent on Thursday. So far, 37,703 healthcare workers have enrolled as beneficiaries of vaccination in the Co-WIN app. They will be administered the vaccine during January 16-20 with 100 members at each centre per day. All arrangements were completed at these centres as per Covid-19 protocol, he added.

Special care has been taken to protect the cold chain during the entire process. The district got three new Ice Lined Refrigerators in addition to the existing 15. Vaccine tracking will be done online in a foolproof manner. Each beneficiary will get 0.5 ml vaccine and they have to take the second dose after 28 days. On both the occasions, they need to take the same company vaccine.

The enrolled beneficiaries will get the message about the time and place of vaccination based on which they have to reach the centre. After the verification process, they will be vaccinated following which they need to wait for 30 minutes at the observation as a precautionary step. If everything goes normal, they can leave.

Arrangements were also made for safe disposal of bio medical waste in a systematic way. They will be divided into syringes, needles, bio medical waste and hazardous waste and sent through a private company staff to a chemical company where they will be destroyed.