The district is a all set to administer the Covishield vaccine to 1,200 health workers on Saturday.
Vaccination will take place at 12 centres, beginning at 10 a.m. on the first day. Vials of the vaccine, which were stored at the vaccine store at the Ernakulam General Hospital, have been transported to the 12 centres. A dry run was completed at these centres on Friday.
A total of 63,000 health workers have registered for vaccination in the district. With the consignment of vaccines that arrived recently containing 73,000 doses, around 32,000 people can be vaccinated, District Collector S. Suhas said at a press briefing. Other centres would begin functioning soon, he said. A total of 260 vaccination centres had been identified so far. Of them, 125 were private centres and 129 in the government sector.
A two-way communication centre has been set up at the Ernakulam General Hospital for health officials to interact with vaccinators and recipients of the vaccine. The staff at the Government Medical College, which had been a COVID-19 treatment facility for several months, and the Ernakulam General Hospital, which had borne the non-COVID patient load, had been prioritised for vaccination. This would be followed by staff at the taluk hospitals, the Collector said.
Dr. Sivadas M.G., who is the nodal officer for the vaccination, said that the Ernakulam General Hospital had the maximum number of health workers registered for vaccination among government facilities, while the Amrita Institute had the most number of health workers registered among private ones.
799 new cases
Meanwhile, the district recorded 799 new COVID-19 cases and 537 recoveries on Friday. Four health workers tested positive on the day. Thuravoor recorded 26 cases, Thrikkakara 23, and Koothattukulam and Thripunithura 20 each. One police official was also infected.
A total of 22,525 people are in quarantine. The district’s active case load is 9,669.