GUWAHATI/AGARTALA/IMPHAL: The eight northeastern states are geared up to start the first phase of Covid vaccination drive on Saturday along with the rest of the country, ministers and officials said on Friday.
According to the health officials, the Covid-19 vaccines reached all the eight northeastern states during the past four days for the first round of immunisation, which follows dry runs, training of health workers and readying the infrastructure needed.
Chief Ministers of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, and Tripura would formally kickstart the vaccination process in their capitals.
In Guwahati, Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the Covid-19 vaccination would be done on Saturday at 65 centres, and in each centre, the vaccine would be administered to 100 health workers.
“Covishield vaccine would be administered at 59 centres and Covaxin at 6 centres in all 33 districts. We have clearly demarcated where Covishield and Covaxin are to be given,” Sarma told the media.
Tripura’s National Health Mission Director Siddharth Shiv Jaiswal said that 56,500 doses of Covishield from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India reached Agartala on Wednesday.
“In the first phase on Saturday, the vaccine would be administered among 1,700 beneficiaries in 17 session sites across eight districts,” Jaiswal, a physician turned IAS officer, told IANS.
In Manipur, the Covid-19 vaccine would be administered in the first phase at 10 places, including the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences (JNIMS), Regional Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), and the district headquarters of Churachandpur, Senapati, Ukhrul, Chandel and Bishnupur.
In Mizoram, four centres have been exclusively set up in the state for the purpose at Civil Hospital in Aizawl, ITI Urban Primary Health Centre, Zoram Medical College and hospital and Lunglei Civil Hospital. In each of the centres, 100 numbers of health workers would be administered the vaccine in the first phase.
Mizoram health officials said that 14,421 healthcare workers so far registered for the vaccination.
In Meghalaya, Health Minister A.L. Hek told the media in Shillong that the state is well-prepared for the Covid-19 vaccination starting on Saturday. The Health Minister said that in the first phase, 16,000 health-workers would be vaccinated.
In Nagaland, around 12,000 health workers in different health care facilities in the mountainous state would be administered the Covid-19 vaccine in the first phase.
Meanwhile, the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry’s fact sheet reported that at least 2,245 people died of Covid-19 in the eight northeastern states while 3,31,715 people including women and children tested positive for the Covid-19 till Friday morning.
The first coronavirus death in the northeastern region was in Assam’s Hailakandi district on April 10. At least 1,065 people succumbed to the dreaded virus in Assam till Friday morning as well as 390 in Tripura, 365 in Manipur, 144 in Meghalaya, 130 in Sikkim, 86 in Nagaland, 56 in Arunachal Pradesh and nine in Mizoram.