The district administration is all set to administer the COVID -19 vaccines to health workers from January 16. The drive will first start from MGM Medical College and Hospital. About 8000 health workers have been registered for the initiative.
According to the district administration, eight centres have been set up for the initiative. These include MGM Medical College, Tata Main Hospital (TMH), Urban CHC Birsnagar, Sadar Hospital Khasmahal, CHC Potka, CHC Bahragora, CHC Patmada and CHC Ghatshila.
The task force committee, which will be overlooking the vaccination programme, had met, and the modalities were finalised.
“The vaccines have reached the city this afternoon and have been stored in the freezers at the Leprosy Department at Sakchi, thereafter they will be dispatched to the respective session sites in frozen containers. The challenge is to maintain the temperature between 2° and 8° Celsius, said RN Jha Civil Surgeon.
In the first phase, the vaccines will be administered to health workers, including doctors, nurses, paramedic staff, lab assistants, ministerial staff, ANM and Aasha workers. The vaccine will be administered in two shots of 0.5 ml of dosage per injection. The second dosage will be given in 28 days or after three weeks.
After the vaccination process, everyone will be kept under observation for 30 minutes and if there is any adverse reaction, he or she will be shifted immediately to the nearest biggest hospital, which has already been identified.
The district has also constituted an AEFI (Adverse Event Following Immunisation) committee, comprising a cardiologist, neurologist, neurosurgeon, general physician and anaesthesiologist, and the observation process will be monitored by them.
The district administration and the Health department had conducted two rounds of Covid-19 vaccination dry run successfully. The dry run is an ‘end to end testing’ of the Covid vaccination process. It includes planning and preparation on administering.
The district administration has also come up with an action plan for easy administering of COVID-19 vaccine. The action plan involves the transportation, storage and administration of the COVID-19 vaccine in the district.
As part of the preparation, the district health department has converted a godown into a massive vaccine storage facility at the Old Civil Surgeon office premise, on Dhalbhum Road in Sakchi. This facility is equipped with a cooler and fridge storage.
