Gujarat: Vaccination drive conducted smoothly on 2nd day

The second day of the COVID-19vaccination drive in Gujarat on Tuesday ended without anyissues across 161 booths where doctors and healthcare workers,including nurses and paramedical staff, were administereddoses of Covishied, officials said.

While the government intended to administer thevaccine to 13,000 beneficiaries identified under the firstpriority group on Tuesday, the exact number of recipients willbe known late in night, they said.

A total of 13,274 beneficiaries were inoculated on thefirst day of the vaccination drive on January 16, Gujarathealth department had said.

The vaccination drive in Gujarat will be undertakenthree days in a week in eight municipal corporation areas, andon four days in a week in the rest of the state.

''The process to administer Covishield vaccine to thebeneficiaries among healthcare workers, doctors, nurses andparamedical staff remained smooth across all the 161 centresin the state,'' said Gujarat Immunisation Officer Dr NayanJani.

''We are targeting to cover between 12,000 to 13,000beneficiaries (on Tuesday). The vaccine was administeredacross 161 centres,'' he said.

He said each large centre will cover around 100beneficiaries while each small centre set up at communityhealth centres (CHCs) will cater to 50 beneficiaries.

Another official said the exact figure ofbeneficiaries who received the jabs during the day will bemade available late in the night.

Jani said the vaccination exercise will not beconducted anywhere in Gujarat on Sunday and Monday.

''In the corporation areas, the drive will not beconducted on Friday as well,'' he added.

The Gujarat government had identified 4.31 lakhbeneficiaries in the first phase of vaccination.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Saturday said no caseof serious adverse reaction due to administration of a vaccinewas reported from anywhere in Gujarat.

Some beneficiaries, however, did complain of minoradverse reactions, such as fever and headache, but expertssaid they were normal.