GUWAHATI: Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday informed that the Centre has asked the state to “be ready for COVID vaccination between January and July next year”
Addressing the media here, Sarma said the frontline staff and population above the age of 60 years would be the priority segments and therefore the first to be administered with the vaccine.
“We have of late been in touch with the central health authorities through meetings and video conferences. During the course of these meetings, the authorities have asked us to be ready for the first COVID vaccination programme any time between January and July next year. No dates have been given as of now though,” the minister said.
He further said that the vaccines would be sourced from at least six to seven places.
“The vaccine may not be of a particular brand. In all probability, it will be mixed,” Sarma said, without elaborating further.
Meanwhile, the health minister has said that the COVID-19 curve has for the first time “started to flatten” in the state.
Sarma said the positivity rate has come down below 4 per cent against 30,000 tests conducted on an average per day, especially during the period from October 6 to 12, 2020.
“For 1, 07900 tests conducted yesterday, the positivity rate has come down to 1.41 per cent. We plan to continuously conduct over 1 lakh tests today and tomorrow as well. So, if we can be more vigilant during the Puja festival and maintain this rate, we will be able to achieve a major success. But yes, we can officially say that the COVID curve has started to flatten, which is a good sign,” he said.
The minister said that while the number of critical patients has been more or less the same, continuous testing over a period might have a bearing on the COVID graph and the flattening of the curve.
“Besides, people have now started adapting well to the isolation protocols,” he said.
Sarma further added that if the figure of 30,000 tests per day was maintained then a “second wave” of COVID during winter could be prevented.