Telangana rolls up sleeves to take first jab

Hyderabad: The stage is set for the launch of the inoculation drive against coronavirus which has shook the world. In the first phase, Covaxin and Covishield will be administered to priority groups from Saturday.

On the first day, at least 4,000 workers from the Health and Sanitation wing would be covered at 139 vaccination centres across the state. Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan would launch the vaccination programme at NIMS (Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences) and Medical and Health Minister E Rajender at Gandhi Hospital in the city. Emergency medical facility is created to provide treatment to the people in the event of them showing any side effects after administering the vaccine. 

Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan would launch the vaccination programme at NIMS (Nizam Institute of Medical Sciences) and Medical and Health Minister E Rajender at Gandhi Hospital in the city. Emergency medical facility is created to provide treatment to the people in the event of them showing any side effects after administering the vaccine.

Director of Public Health Dr G Srinivasa Rao said the vaccination drive would be carried out for four days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. All the details of the vaccinating persons were uploaded on the CoWin app developed by the Union Government. A Call Centre is opened to receive complaints and address the grievances during the vaccination programme instantly.

Nearly 3.15-lakh workers from the Healthcare and Sanitation staff in the health sector would be covered in the first phase vaccination programme. The State has received 3.84 lakh doses of vaccine of which 50,000 doses were transported to the districts to administer to the identified health workers mainly Nurses and Aasha workers.

Rajendar said the first and second dose vaccine manufactured by the same company would be administered.

Rajendar said that the same brand of vaccine would be used for the first and second dose. Adequate vaccine stocks were already procured to make the first phase programme a success. He said 10,000 para-medical staff were given training to administer the vaccine. A special medical team was formed to address emergency medical issues in case any vaccine reaction is found among the vaccinated persons. Second dose would be given after 28 days of the first dose following a thorough medical check.