Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, 12 Jan: The first few batches of Covishield Covid-19 vaccine are on its way to the capital and are expected to arrive on Tuesday night as we file this report.
Secretary Health and Family Welfare P Parthiban informed The Arunachal Times that “the vaccine would reach Naharlagun from Guwahati tonight.”
Covishield is the Serum Institute of India’s Coronavirus vaccine and has been dispatched to 13 major cities in the country from Pune on Monday. The entire country is gearing up for a nationwide inoculation drive from 16 January.
The health secretary informed that the launch on 16 January in the state will be held in Tawang, TRIHMS Naharlagun, Pasighat, Yingkiong and Namsai.
“In the first phase, 23,502 health care workers (HCW) are eligible to receive the vaccine. After HCWs, it is the front line workers (FLW), which involves the police department, prisons department, para military forces, sanitary workers and revenue officials,” the health secretary said.
He informed that “till now, the department has received the data of about 1,300 FLWs and they are expecting another 15,000 FLWs to be registered in the COWIN portal.
About 28,000 FLWs will be vaccinated in the second phase and the exact number of vaccinations for the second phase will be known only by 25th January.
