Jalandhar district all set for first phase of inoculation drive

Aparna Banerji

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, January 13

After the dry run for Covid vaccine in Jalandhar on January 8, the district is all set for the first phase of its inoculation drive on January 16.

As per the final lists, 11,800 health workers (government, private as well as military) shall be vaccinated across 29 centres in the district on the first day of the vaccination drive. As many as 16,000 doses of Covishield vaccine are set to arrive in the district within a day or two.

The 16,000 doses shall be stacked across 11 storage points in Jalandhar — 8 rural and 3 urban, including storage points at the Civil Hospital, CHCs and sub-divisional hospitals. As many as 29 teams shall be administering vaccines across these 29 centres in the district. Each storage point has been stacked with ILRs (ice-lined refrigerators) to store the vaccines.

The second dose of the vaccine shall be administered to all health workers listed with the Health Department 28 days after the first dose. In the second stage of the vaccine, all frontline workers shall be included. The second stage workforce shall include the administration and police frontline officials, journalists and paramilitary forces.

The 29 teams are supposed to meet a target of vaccinating 2,900 people on a single day. As per the health officials, each of the 29 teams shall have a target of vaccinating 100 beneficiaries (per team), so the 29 teams will cover 2,900 people in a day. Any health workers that are left out shall be vaccinated during the second dose.

District Immunisation Officer Dr Rakesh Chopra said: “For the first phase, 16,000 doses of Covishield vaccine shall be arriving in the district. It has reached Chandigarh and will come to Jalandhar tomorrow or day after. Since a margin of 10 per cent wastage has also been kept, currently 16,000 doses shall be arriving. In a single day, there is a target of vaccinating 2,900 people in the district. All arrangements are in place and the teams and centres might also be expanded depending on the first phase. Lists of frontline workers are also being prepared. The data shall keep getting updated. We have a capacity to store 12 lakh vaccines in all, but they are being brought as per the current need and as per the vaccinating phase.”

The Covishield vaccine shall arrive in vials, each of which has 10 doses. Vaccines will be stored at 2°C to 8°C and can be stored until they expire. However, the Health Department expects to use these all in six months.

Dist reports 14 new Covid cases

Jalandhar: With 14 more cases, total number of Covid positive cases in the district on Wednesday reached 20,249. The number of deceased persons in Jalandhar remained 653. The active cases in the district are 244, while 19,352 people have been discharged and 141 people are under home isolation in Jalandhar. In Kapurthala district, 14 persons tested positive for Covid-19 on Wednesday.