Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir on Wednesday received the first consignment of 1.46 lakh doses of coronavirus vaccine from Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), officials said.
While 79,000 doses were received here for vaccination of nearly 60,000 healthcare workers in the Kashmir Valley, 67,500 vaccines have been received in the Jammu division, they said.
The officials said the vaccination will begin on Saturday at 30 centres across the union territory.
“To begin with, inauguration ceremonies will be held at SKIMS hospital Soura in Srinagar and Government Medical College Jammu, where Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha will be present,” they said.
Besides these two, there are 14 immunisation centres each in the Kashmir Valley and the Jammu division.
The officials said in the first phase, healthcare workers across the union territory will be given shots while frontline workers will be covered in the second phase.
Meanwhile, State Immunisation Officer, Dr Qazi Haroon told KNO that they received Ist batch of vaccines in Srinagar on Wednesday afternoon and the same were accordingly forwarded to different areas so that the vaccination drive starts on 16 January.
Qazi said that they have arranged choppers to take vaccines to far off places in J&K like in Gurez, Tanghdar and Karnah and by Friday they will be ready to start the vaccination process along with the entire country on Saturday.
Director Health Services, Kashmir, Dr Sameer Matoo said that 79,000 Covishield vaccines were received under Ist consignment on Wednesday.
“We have around 60,000 health workers in Kashmir division. Our first priority is our health care workers along with municipal workers and revenue officials,” he said.
“People above 50 years age and those having co- morbidities like diabetes and other issues will get vaccines in the next phases at our Covid designated centres,” Matoo said.
The first phase of the vaccination drive would cover 30 crore people in India.
Jammu and Kashmir has recorded over 1,22,700 cases of coronavirus so far while the death toll due to the epidemic has reached 1,912. The number of active cases is around 2,000.
