All set for Covid vaccine drive from Jan 16

VIJAYAWADA: Arrangements are in place for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive in Andhra Pradesh starting January 16. A total of 3,87,983 health department staff will be vaccinated in the first phase. The second consignment of 20,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine from Bharat Biotech have arrived at Gannavaram on Wednesday and the same has been shifted to central stores. The State had received its first consignment of 4.77 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine on Tuesday.      

Deputy Chief Minister (Health) Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas said that the process of transporting the vaccine from the central stores to regional points and from there to districts has started. “Regional storage points have been set up in Kurnool, Kadapa, Guntur and Visakhapatnam and a total of 4,065 cold chain equipment are being used for the entire process. All the 13 districts will have storage points and a total 1,659 cold chain points have been set up for the vaccination drive,” the minister said. 

People other than health department staff and frontline workers can register their names for vaccination using their photo identity cards.  Minister said freezers have been prepared for vaccinating one crore people and most of them were procured from local markets. Private hospitals with more than 100 staff have also been made as session sites and there are 200 such sites across the State. To ensure security at the storage points, CCTV cameras have been set up and the storage points are being closely monitored.