0
Comment(s)
*
* The moderation of comments is automated and not cleared manually by indianexpress.com.
Written by Astha Saxena
| New Delhi |
December 22, 2020 2:03:31 am
In line with the central government’s guidelines, data of about 1.25 lakh healthcare workers (government and private) has been compiled by the state government for the first phase of vaccination.Around 1,100 healthcare workers and district officials across Delhi have been trained so far under the extensive training programme for 3,500 healthcare workers who will be administering Covid vaccine shots once they are made available in the city.
On Monday, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan said India may begin vaccinating people against Covid-19 in January and the government’s first priority has been safety and efficacy of the vaccine.
Dr Suneela Garg, a public health expert and advisor to the ICMR, has been appointed to the state Covid-19 task force for the Delhi vaccination programme. She said, “Training is in full swing. Around 30 people are being trained every day and we are simultaneously working on the logistics required for the management of vaccine once it starts in Delhi.”
According to the Health Ministry, there are nine Covid-19 vaccine candidates in different phases of clinical trials in India – six are in clinical trials and three in pre-clinical phase. Three vaccine candidates, including Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, Serum Institute-Oxford vaccine Covishield and Pfizer India, are in the fray for emergency use authorisation.
In the first phase, the city will vaccinate around 1.8 lakh-2.25 lakh healthcare workers. Once the officials are trained, they will carry out final checks of the vaccine programme.
“They will check if the mobile application developed by the ministry to update all details on the vaccination is working, the availability of syringes and other logistics that need to be verified. The idea is to make the set-up completely ready before rolling out the vaccination programme,” said a senior official from the state health department.
As reported by The Indian Express, the city will have 609 cold chain points for carrying out the immunisation programme with almost 60 in each district.