COVID-19 vaccination drive underway on first day in Arunachal Pradesh

ITANAGAR: The COVID-19 vaccination drive is underway in Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday with a government hospital doctor receiving the first shot, a senior health official said here.

Chief Minister Pema Khandu inaugurated the state-wide launch of the COVID-19 inoculation exercise at the K D S District Hospital in Tawang earlier in the day.

Dr Deka, an associate professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Tomo Riba Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (TRIHMS) in Naharlagun near here was the first person in the state to receive the vaccine, State Surveillance Officer Dr Lobsang Jampa said.

When the vaccination began, Home Minister Bamang Felix was present at TRIHMS. On the first day, the vaccine will be administered to a total of 900 people, 100 each at nine session sites, Jampa said.

"The vaccination drive will continue in the rest of the districts and blocks from Sunday as per the session planning in the CoWin portal," Jampa said.

A list of 23,505 healthcare professionals, including 3,867 vaccinators and 483 health workers from Indo-Tibetan Border Police, has been uploaded on CoWin, a digital platform for monitoring the inoculation exercise, he said.

Around 28,000 frontline workers also registered their names at the portal. The state received a total 32,000 doses of Covishield vaccine from the Centre till now, he said adding that the vaccines have been allocated to all districts.

The state has 195 cold chain points for storage of COVID-19 vaccines, the official said.