Centre nod for 18+ vaccination drive in Assam

GUWAHATI: Assam has finally got the Centre’s nod to inoculate the 18-44 age-group after the government approved five lakh doses for vaccinating the young.
However, the Centre has not confirmed the date when the consignment will reach Assam.
Top health officials told TOI that considering the uncertainty about the date of arrival of the first consignment of vaccines, it is unlikely that the jab drive would start on May 1 as scheduled earlier.

Health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma took to Twitter to share the ‘Great News’, as he mentioned in his Twitter handle, about the Centre’s commitment to provide the vaccines.
“Assam gets 5 lakh + #COVID19Vaccine by GOI (371480 Covishield; 128830 Covaxin) for 18+ people. We’re procuring it immediately through funds from the Assam Arogya Nidhi,” Himanta tweeted.
He said that in government facilities, the vaccination will be free for all.
“We are hopeful that the vaccines will arrive in the state by May 4 or 5. In that case, we can start the drive from May 6 or 7,” Himanta told the media.
For Assamese NRIs, he informed, over 60 doses of Remdesivir injection have been dispatched from Guwahati. Even as the Assam government has faced criticism from organizations like the Indian Medical Association, for allegedly going slow on the vaccination process, the state health department accelerated the drive on Friday.
Since morning, 1.04 lakh vaccinations were conducted till evening. On a single day, this has been the second-highest vaccination drive in Assam.
“We have administered 24.66 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses in the state till date and the current stock is 5.53 lakh doses. But this stock is for 45+ people only,” said a senior health official.
As there has been no respite from spiraling cases, health experts felt that quick vaccination is the only way to resist the severity of the positive cases. A total 3,197 positive cases were detected across the state on Friday.
‘Positivity rate hasn’t gone up in Guwahati’
The overall positivity percentage has been 4.43 after conducting 72,239 tests. On the other hand, the recovery rate has been 90%. In Kamrup (Metro) district alone 1,184 cases were reported.
“In Guwahati city, the positivity rate and positive cases haven’t gone up. This observation in the last four days is a matter of slight relief,” Himanta said.
Earlier in the day, the minister also inaugurated an oxygen plant with a generation capacity of 0.9 metric ton at the Mahendra Mohan Choudhury Hospital (MMCH) here.
This is equivalent to 100 jumbo cylinders. The total medical oxygen capacity in Assam has been ramped up to 68.7 metric ton per day.
“We now have 11 oxygen plants of our own,” he said. After 26 Covid-related deaths were reported on Thursday, the health department has convened a death audit board meeting to ascertain the causes of death in detail.