Govt has made all preparations to start state-wide Covid vaccination: Vijay Rupani

CHIEF MINISTER Vijay Rupani said Saturday the state government has “made all the preparations in Gujarat to start state-wide vaccination drive from January 16 for doctors, healthcare and frontline workers”, following an announcement by the central government on vaccine rollout across the country.

Following a core-committee meeting to review vaccine logistics, the state health department said Gujarat has the capacity to store up to one crore doses of coronavirus vaccine. For Covid-19, a total of 17,128 vaccinators have been trained who will be deputed across 27,934 sites in the state, they said. A total of 2,236 cold-chain points will be available to store vaccines.

In the first phase of the vaccination, which will include healthcare workers across government and private sectors, more than 4.33 lakh beneficiaries are expected to be administered Covid-19 vaccine shots. In the second phase of the vaccination drive, 3.47 lakh beneficiaries which include frontline workers like the police and defence personnel, and officials from the revenue and urban development departments, will be vaccinated.

A total of 1.06 crore people aged above 50 years have been listed for the third phase, while another 2.71 lakh people below 50 years but with serious comorbidities have been listed for the fourth phase, officials said.

Dry-run of the vaccine has been conducted across 931 vaccination sites in 248 blocks and 26 zones of the state.

On Saturday, Gujarat reported 675 new cases of Covid-19 taking the total tally of cases to more than 2.50 lakh. With five deaths, the fatality due to the virus in the state rose to 4,340. In Ahmedabad district, as many as 129 persons tested positive for coronavirus, while two died of the infection.