Nagpur: The number of healthcare
workers in Nagpur Municipal Corporation (
NMC), government and private
hospitals willing to take the Covid-19 vaccine has crossed 21,000. The number is likely to rise further as over 50% private hospitals are yet to be submit their
list of staffers.
The ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) had announced it would vaccinate
healthcare workers in phase-I, and asked local governments to compile the list.
Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B had appealed to government and private hospitals to send the list on or before October 28. The civic body received list of around 13,000 workers, of which majority were from NMC and government hospitals. Only 209 of 650 private hospitals had submitted the list by end of the deadline.
Then, Radhakrishnan and additional chief medical officer Dr Praveen Gantawar held talks with private hospitals and also clarified their confusions. Now, the number has crossed 21,000 and likely to increase further.
On December 15, Radhakrishnan had directed NMC officials to finalize 50 centres for vaccinating around 20,000 healthcare workers and submit a list within a week. However, assistant commissioners and zonal medical officers of ten zones are yet to finalize the centres and submit the list.
The civic body is also yet to identify places for storage of vaccines. It has been delayed due to lack of guidelines related to storage from the central or state government.
Also, NMC is yet to receive any tentative schedule for starting the
vaccination programme. NMC had given training to medical officers who will further train vaccinators and other staff to be engaged in the vaccination programme.
NMC has also started to prepare list of front-line workers who will be vaccinated in phase-II.