by Bhupen Goswami
GUWAHATI : The first consignment of corona vaccine has reached the north eastern capital city of Guwahati. With this, vaccination campaign will be launched across the country from Saturday 16th January. The Pune-based Serum Institute of India has started a series of vaccine supply in different parts of the country on Tuesday.
The supply of vaccine through a special aircraft started early Tuesday morning which reached Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi at around 10 am. These will be kept in cold storage from now onwards and when vaccination begins, the vaccination centre will be transported. DCP Meeker Patil of Pune Zone-5 said that the first consignment has been flagged off amidst adequate security arrangements.
“Today Air India, SpiceJet and Indigo Airlines will operate 9 flights from Pune to Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata, Guwahati, Shillong, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Bhubaneswar, Patna, Bengaluru, Lucknow and Chandigarh with a dose of 56.5 lakh. Meanwhile, the first flight carrying kovid vaccine had left for Guwahati.
The first batch of Kovid-19 vaccine has reached Guwahati today. Already, a special flight carrying the vaccine had departed from Pune to Guwahati, the official said. First flight to depart “Kovichild” vaccine to Guwahati. He further tweeted, “The civil aviation sector has launched another important mission. The vaccine movement begins. The first two flights have been hit by Delhi and Chennai from Pune to spice. Further, the Union Health Ministry had asked the remaining 18 states including the North East to get the first consignment of corona vaccine soon and be prepared to get it.
The Assam government official today said that the Union Health Ministry sent a letter to all the north-eastern states and said in a letter that the supplier will supply vaccines to the centres of 19 states and union territories. These include Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. The remaining 18 States and Union Territories will get the vaccine from their respective government medical storage depots. These include Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Daman and Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Puducherry, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand. Dr. Pradeep Haldar, adviser, Reproductive and Child Health, Ministry of Health said in a letter dated 5th January that all states and union territories can get the first consignment of Kovid-19 vaccines soon. In this regard, you are urged to keep preparations in advance to achieve the supply of vaccines, he added.
The letter says that the vaccine will be distributed in the districts as per the registered beneficiaries for which a separate letter will be sent soon. It may be recalled that the country’s drug controller had approved the Covaccine of Oxford-AstraZeneca on Sunday and the Covaccine of the Bharat Biotech Company developed in the country for limited use in emergencies. The ministry said on Tuesday that it is ready to provide the vaccine within 10 days of the limited use of vaccine emergencies on January 3, but the government will decide which date the vaccine will be brought. Meanwhile, vaccination will be rehearsed on 8th January in all states and union territories except Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to ensure effective planning and management for supply of vaccines in each district. A senior official said today that the drought vaccine for kovid-19 vaccine has been continued regularly across Assam to prepare medical staff and infrastructure following a letter from the Union Health Ministry.
The senior official said that the National Health Mission and the State Health Department have tried to cover health centres and hospitals as much as possible in the coming days in the ongoing drought-era exercise across the state. “Our aim is to prepare our employees, upgrade state machinery and improve vaccine delivery infrastructure. Let us say that the Serum Institute of India had dismissed rumours of delay in the process of transparency due to any agreement with the central government over the price. The CEO of the Serum Institute, Adar Puravala, said that there is no compromise or bargaining over the price. Some procedures were required to be followed before the transcript of the vaccine dose. Puravala had said that the first 10 crore doses of Kovild would be given to the government at about Rs. 200 per dose. It will be available in the market at Rs. 1000 per dose. Puravala said that his company is preparing five to six crore vaccine doses every month.