Maha receives 9.63 lakh Covishield doses, inoculation at 511 centres

The Maharashtra government hasreceived 9.63 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine from SerumInstitute of India (SII) and inoculation will be conducted at511 centres, health minister Rajesh Tope said on Tuesday.

Mumbai, the state capital, will have the highestnumber of 72 centres while Pune district will have 55 centres,an official release said as first consignments of vaccine leftSII in Pune earlier in the day.

The government has compiled a database of 7.84 lakhhealth workers who will be vaccinated in the first phase.

A minimum of 100 people will be vaccinated againstCOVID-19 at a single centre which will have a team of five whowill verify the SMS sent to the person to be inoculated, heror his identity and administer the vaccine.

''The necessary arrangement of electricity, Internetand webcasting service has been made at all these centres,''Tope said in the release.

''The state government has so far compiled a databaseof 7.84 lakh medical workers including doctors, nurses andother staff who has been more exposed to COVID-19 patients(than others). The registration drive on state government'sportal (for those who will be vaccinated in the first phase)will continue till Tuesday midnight,'' he said.

The first consignment of Covishield vaccines left forDelhi on Tuesday morning, four days ahead of the nationwideinoculation drive launch.

Four airlines are operating nine flights to transport56.5 lakh doses of the vaccine from Pune to 13 cities acrossthe country.

The inoculation drive will be conducted as per theinstructions of the National Expert Group on VaccineAdministration for COVID-19 (NEGVAC), Tope said.

The first phase of vaccination will cover healthworkers from state-run as well as private hospitals, municipalhospitals and also workers of Anganwadi (government-runchild-care centres in rural areas), he said.

''We have trained 17,749 vaccinators who willadminister the dose. We have also set up 3,135 cold storagechains including one central facility at the state level,nine at divisional level, 34 at district level and 27facilities at municipal corporation level.

''The other infrastructure includes 21 walk-in coolers,four walk-in freezers, 4,153 ice lined refrigerators and 3,937deep-freezers,'' the minister informed.