HYDERABAD: Ahead of the vaccine rollout in Telangana from January 16, a consignment of 3.64 lakh doses of Oxford-AstraZeneca's Covishield vaccine arrived in Hyderabad from Pune on Tuesday. The vaccine is manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII).
After its arrival, the vaccine was sent to the State Vaccine Centre’s walk-in coolers for storing before they are transported to the inoculation centres.
The State has identified nearly 3.40 lakh healthcare workers for the vaccination, including 25,000 to 30,000 from Central government hospitals. "This is a historic day for modern medicine as in a record time of 10 months, a vaccine is ready. We thank the researchers and scientists who worked on this," said Dr GS Rao, Director of Public Health of Telangana.
These vials, along with Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin, will be administered to the healthcare workers from January 16 over a period of eight to 10 weeks. Bharat Biotech will supply nearly 20,000 Covaxin doses to Telangana by Wednesday. "We are very proud and happy to receive the vaccine from Bharat Biotech as this was made on Telangana soil," said Dr Rao, at the time of collecting the Covishield vaccine consignment.
The vaccine will be stored in special freezers at two to eight degree Celsius and will be later transported to various Regional Vaccine Centres from Tuesday evening. It will eventually be sent to various cold chain points at the respective vaccine sites, which are around 1,200 in number. The present consignment was manufactured on November 1, 2020 and its expires on April 29, 2021.
Hyderabad to see vaccine rollout across 13 sites on January 16
In Telangana, Hyderabad district will see the most number of vaccine sites on the Day 1 of the inoculation drive on Saturday. In the district, 13 sites have been identified, including six major private hospitals.
These include UPHC Tilak Nagar, Nampally Area Hospital, Gandhi Hospital, Chest Hospital, Aman Nagar, Baldas, District Hospital King Koti. The private hospitals are Yashoda Somajiguda, KIMS Secunderabad, Rainbow Hospital, Star Hospitals, Fernandez Hospital and Apollo Hospital Jubliee Hills. The other districts in the State will have two to three healthcare facilities each
GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo handles 1st vaccine consignment
GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo (GHAC) handled the first consignment of 31 boxes of 1 MT of Covishield vaccine on Tuesday. The shipment arrived at the Cargo by the Spicejet Freighter, SG7466 at 11:30 am from Pune. The consignment was handled as per the special protocol ensuring cool-chain integrity
Health department issues 14-point action plan for districts
The Telangana Health Department issued a 14-point memo on Tuesday to all 33 district collectors on the preparations for the Covid-19 vaccine rollout on January 16. Some of the action points enlisted by Health Secretary SAM Rizvi include ensuring that all infrastructural and logistical preparations for the drive are in place.
Rizvi has also asked to the appointment of special officers for each of the session sites. The department has also asked the collectors to involve public representatives during the launch of the vaccine, who will also be present at the inoculation site to encourage healthcare workers to take the jab.
Other directives include maintaining manual records of the vaccine apart from uploading data on the Cowin app that will serve as a back up