Uttarakhand ready for vaccination exercise: Official

Uttarakhand is fully prepared for COVID-19 vaccination beginning on January 16, with 4,943 government and private health centres being identified for the purpose, officials said on Monday.

As many as 87,588 health workers will be administered the vaccine in the first phase of the inoculation exercise in the state, Director General Health Amita Upreti said at a press conference in Dehradun.

As per the operational guidelines issued by Government of India, 402 observers would be appointed to oversee the vaccination process, she said.

Upreti said 120 additional observers will also do the vaccination work and added that 2,118 women health workers and ANMs have been made vaccinators.

She said 317 cold chain points have been made for the storage of vaccines at the right temperature. 483 iceline refrigerators, 547 deep freezers, three walk-in coolers and two walk-in freezers have been arranged to maintain the quality of the vaccines, Upreti said.

The vaccination exercise will be carried out in three phases. Healthcare and frontline workers will be vaccinated in the first phase, people above fifty years and those suffering from diseases in the second and the rest in the third phase.

All arrangements have been made at the identified vaccination centres to deal with an emergency or side effects of the vaccine by equipping them with life saving drugs and all required resources, Upreti said.

The final vaccine dry run is to take place in 310 centres across the state on Tuesday.