600 Covid-19 warriors to take vaccine jab

The district will kick off its Covid-19 vaccination drive with 600 front-line health care workers, who will take the jab on Saturday as part of the nationwide vaccine launch. While Prime Minister Narendra Modi is likely to connect with the vaccine beneficiaries of Wazirabad session site, among others, through a video conference, chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar will connect with the health care workers of Medanta Hospital during the launch.

At 10:30am after the vaccine launch by the PM, inoculation will begin at six vaccination session sites in Gurugram, said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer. “Appropriate arrangements have been made at all the six vaccination sites, including the government primary schools in Wazirabad, Daulatabad, Medanta Hospital in Sector 39, SGT Medical College in Chandu Budhera, urban primary health centre in Chauma and the primary health centre in Bhangrola. At each site, 100 front-line health care workers will be vaccinated.”

He said that based on the requirement, vaccine doses will be supplied to the nearby cold-chain points set up at urban primary health centres. On Saturday morning, after 8:30am, required doses will reach the sites in a vaccine carrier. A single vial of Serum Institute’s Covishield vaccine has 10 doses. It will be given to all vaccination sites, except for Chauma where Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin will be provided. Each Covaxin vial has 20 doses. Only 0.5 ml will be given to a beneficiary as an intramuscular injection.

“Covaxin beneficiaries will have to sign a consent form before the inoculation as per the directives issued by the Central government,” said Yadav. According to him, each site will get additional doses considering there can be 1.1% wastage of the vaccine due to breakage. The district on Thursday received over 49,150 doses of Covid-19 vaccine, comprising 44,950 doses of Covishield and 4,200 doses of Covaxin to inoculate 44, 950 healthcare workers in the next four weeks.

Yadav along with deputy commissioner Yash Garg will be present at the Wazirabad session site and Medanta for the communication with the PM and CM. “At each site, preparation has been done for live telecast of the vaccine launch. At Wazirabad vaccination site, since PM is likely to interact with vaccine beneficiaries, a two-way communication system has been set up in an open area within the government school premises,” Yadav said.

The vaccination will continue till 5pm where registered health care workers after verification on Co-WIN platform will get the inoculation. They will have to wait for 30 minutes in the observation area. From Friday evening many health care workers who are to be vaccinated started receiving SMS regarding date, time and location for the inoculation.