Woman sanitation worker gets first vaccine dose in Chhattisgarh

RAIPUR: A 51-year-old woman sanitation worker at a government hospital was the first person to get the coronavirus vaccine shot in Chhattisgarh after the launch of the nationwide inoculation drive on Saturday.

Health officials here said the vaccination began in 97 centres across the state, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi formally inaugurated the drive from Delhi.

"Tulsa Tandi, a Swacchtakarmi (sanitation worker) at the Dr B R Ambedkar Memorial Hospital Raipur since 2008, was the first person to get vaccinated in the state", the state director for the National Health Mission Priyanka Shukla told PTI.

Tandi was administered the Covishield vaccine at the local Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru Medical College, which is among five vaccination sites in Raipur district, she said adding that drive is underway in all 28 districts in the state.

Around 2.67 lakh health workers and other frontline staff were registered to receive vaccine shots during the first phase of the drive in the state, said Shukla, who is also the state nodal officer for coronavirus vaccination drive.

The other four vaccination centres in Raipur district are All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raipur, District hospital Pandri, NHMMI private hospital and Mission hospital Tilda.

Each vaccination centre has vaccinators, monitoring staff, record examiners, and security personnel and a nodal officer, another health official here said.

After the vaccination, beneficiaries will be kept in the observation room for 30 minutes and in case they show adverse effects they will be immediately provided treatment at the hospital, he said.

Altogether 100 beneficiaries are expected to be administered vaccine at each centre daily, he said.

Chhattisgarh has received 3.23 lakh Covishield vaccine doses from the Serum Institute of India as part of the first consignment for the vaccination drive, he said.

So far, 7,116 vaccinators have been given training for the initial phase of the drive in the state, he said.