1.60 lakh health workers will be first to get COVID-19 vaccine in Punjab: Minister

He said the state government has established a storage capacity of one crore vaccines in its own cold chain centres.To a question on the timeframe of the vaccination drive, Principal Secretary Health Lal said it will depend upon the availability of vaccines.

Around 1.60 lakh health workers in Punjab will receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the first phase, Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said on Sunday. Principal Secretary (Health) Hussan Lal said the data regarding 1.60 lakh healthcare workers has already been uploaded on the CoWin portal -- an online platform for monitoring the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine.

Talking to reporters, Sidhu said, ''...the vaccine which is coming will first be given to 1.60 lakh healthcare workers in the state.'' Giving details of the vaccination process, Lal said the vaccine will be given to about 70 lakh people in the state in a phased manner. He said that after health workers, the vaccine will be administered to around three lakh frontline workers, including policemen, paramilitary forces, sanitation workers and disaster management volunteers.

Thereafter, the Principal Secretary (Health) said, people above 50 years and those aged below 50 with co-morbid conditions will be covered under the inoculation drive. The Health minister said the Centre should provide COVID-19 vaccine to Punjab free of cost.

Sidhu further said Punjab is fully prepared for the vaccination drive. He said the state government has established a storage capacity of one crore vaccines in its own cold chain centres.

To a question on the timeframe of the vaccination drive, Principal Secretary (Health) Lal said it will depend upon the availability of vaccines. He said the state has the capacity to administer four lakh vaccines in a day.

He further said Punjab has around 4,000 trained vaccinators. ''If we get a large number of doses, then we can also use doctors, pharmacists, dental doctors and nurses as vaccinators,” Lal said, adding the state has enough storage capacity for COVID-19 vaccine.

A state-level vaccine store has been set up in Chandigarh, officials said. Punjab has already conducted a dry run for vaccination in Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.

The mock drill of the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccine was being conducted in Patiala on Sunday. Punjab has so far recorded 1.67 lakh coronavirus cases and 5,364 deaths.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)