GURUGRAM: Four senior
doctors, including the chief medical officer and deputy commissioner, will take the first shots of the
Covid vaccine on Saturday to put to rest any apprehension people might have about its side effects.
The
four doctors — CMO Virender Yadav, deputy commissioner Yash Garg,
Medanta chairman and MD Naresh Trehan and Sushila Katariya, who treated the group of 14 Italians, the country’s first batch of foreign patients diagnosed with
Covid-19 last March — urged people not to panic and wait for their turns to get themselves vaccinated while cautioning th-em on misinformation around vaccines.
Dr Katariya, director and head of the department of internal medicine at Medanta, urged people not to let their guard down even after getting the vaccine shot. “The vaccine is safe as it is the outcome of clinical trials. People should get themselves vaccinated when it is available. But even after getting the shots, they should continue to follow the Covid safety protocols such as maintaining social distance, wearing masks and sanitisation,” she said.
Dr Trehan echoed her. “I am also going to get the Covid-19 vaccine, which means it is safe. I will be able to express more after my vaccine experience,” he said.
The two vaccines that have been authorised for use in India are Oxford AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. The chief medical officer said there were certain false perceptions about vaccines. “They have been declared safe only after clinical tests. Some people have been apprehensive about the vaccine. Some were of the opinion it might have side effects and others thought it could also lead to a Covid infection. Such perceptions are not true. Side effects can occur in some cases, but we will have our teams to take care of such issues. And no, people cannot get Covid infection from the vaccines,” Dr Yadav said.
Dr Garg, the newly appointed head of the
Gurugram administration, said, “I will take the vaccine in keeping with the norms. If I am eligible to get vaccinated in the first phase, I will definitely take it. It is safe for children and adults. We have been through many immunisation processes. They are not new for the country.”
Gurugram will get 44,950 vaccine doses in the first phase. On Wednesday, a refrigerated van was sent to Kurukshetra to get the vaccines. Apart from Gurugram, the van will bring vials for Faridabad (22,620), Nuh (7,120), Palwal (5,090) and Rewari (5,700). The van is expected to reach the city on Thursday afternoon and the vials for the other districts will be distributed from there.
Additional chief secretary (health) Rajeev Arora visited a session site for the inoculations at Waziarbad on Wednesday for an inspection. The health department has identified six sites where he shots will be administered.
Of these six, the one in Wazirabad will have a two-way interactive session with the Prime Minister.
The other sites — Bhangrola, Daultabad, Medanta, Chauma and SGT Medical College — will have webcasts of the national Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
Arora also asked all frontline workers, such as policemen and municipality officials, to be prepared by January 25 for the next phase of vaccination. The city on Wednesday reported 51 Covid cases, taking its overall tally to 57,667.
The health department said 66 patients also recovered, taking the total number of recoveries to 56,583.
As many as 349 people in the city have died of Covid so far, of whom 270 had comorbidities. The city has a total of 735 active cases and 669 of them are in home isolation. The recovery rate stands at 98%.