PATNA: The D-Day in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is here. Altogether 30,000 healthcare workers, including
sanitation staff of hospitals, lab technicians, ambulance drivers, nurses and doctors, are likely to get the
shot on Day One of the vaccination drive beginning today.
While vaccination will be done across 300 centres simultaneously and each centre will be vaccinating 100 people per day, the drive will be launched at the IGIMS hospital, Patna, in the presence of chief minister Nitish Kumar and state health minister Mangal Pandey at 10.45 am on Saturday.
The first person in the state to get the shot would be a 35-year-old sanitation worker of the IGIMS, Ram Babu, who will get the vaccine in the presence of the CM and the health minister, launching the state-wide drive. The second person in the queue would be an ambulance driver Amit Kumar.
“The rest 98 to be inoculated at IGIMS will have five doctors, including Dr Deepak Pankaj of general surgery, and nursing, paramedic, security and other sanitation staff,” informed the hospital’s superintendent Dr Manish Mandal.
Health minister Pandey said those getting the shot on Saturday will be given the second dose after 28 days, preferably on February 14. While the age group is mixed, those above 50 years and without any comorbidity have been preferred for the exercise on the first day.
Pandey further said if a person gets the Serum Institute of India’s Covishield, he will get the next dose of the same vaccine. Similarly, if one gets Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin in the first round, the person would get the second dose of the same vaccine.
However, the shots vaccines would be given as per the quantities made available by the Centre, and a person cannot pick and choose between Covishield and Covaxin. “Both the vaccines have been tested and are safe. Both will have the same result,” Pandey assured.
As per the information shared by the health department principal secretary, Pratyaya Amrit, the vaccination will be carried out on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday across the centres in
Bihar, except for the holidays. Those who have registered themselves on CoWIN app would get the date, time and the centre where they will be vaccinated.
Among the private institutes, Paras HMRI has been selected for the launch and both the health institutes will be going live with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on Saturday. Paras hospital’s superintendent Dr Syed Asif Rahman said they were fully prepared for the vaccination drive. He said the list of those getting vaccinated and the doses will be made available to them only on Saturday morning.