Vadodara: Nurses who had handled Covid-19 duties in wards and ICUs on a rotation basis, doctors who were on the forefront of the fight against the pandemic even as members of their own families were battling the deadly virus — were amongst the first to get the shots as Covid-19 vaccination drive began at Central Gujarat’s biggest government hospital – the SSG Hospital in Vadodara on Saturday.
SSG Hospital was one of the ten vaccination centres in Vadodara city and district which were abuzz since Saturday morning as politicians, bureaucrats and top officials of city and district’s health department flocked the centres where 100 persons were already identified for inoculation.
As soon as Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address via video conferencing ended, doctors and nurses rolled up their sleeves to get the first shots of the Covid vaccine while they were being handed over roses asked to remain under observation for 30 minutes as per protocol while they were constantly facing the glare of cameras.
While the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) vaccinated 600 persons achieving 100 % target at six locations in the city, the four centres in Vadodara district recorded 79 % vaccination as 285 persons got vaccinated on the first day.
“For the first day, 363 health workers were registered. Of these, 285 got vaccinated. At one private hospital, vaccination was 100 %,” said Dr Uday Tilawat, chief district health officer. The three other centres in the district included a Waghodiya-based private hospital, Varnama primary health centre and Savli community health centre.
VMC’s medical officer health Dr Devesh Patel said late on Saturday evening the vaccination had been completed and only some work regarding data entry remained. He added that this was expected to get over soon on Saturday night.
Sources said that while the first day of vaccination in the city was a major success, there was no clarity regarding the strategy from Monday. When asked about this, Patel said that they were awaiting further instructions.
Earlier, it was planned that the vaccine would be administered at 11 locations in the city but eventually only six locations were finalized. These included government-run SSG Hospital and Jamnabai General Hospital, two private hospitals and two urban primary health centres.