Health, Medical and Family Welfare Principal Secretary Anil Kumar Singhal has said that the government will reach out to all those who are due for the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine.
“The District Collectors have been instructed to schedule vaccination drives at particular centres as per the due date and reach out to the beneficiaries through a door-to-door visit by the ward and village volunteers, SMSes and public announcement,” he told the media on Sunday.
Mr. Singhal said that the authorities concerned had been told to make it clear that only those who were informed should visit the vaccine centre on the scheduled date to avoid the rush. “The Centre has permitted the State to utilise the doses purchased by it to vaccinate the people aged above 45 years and modifications to the CoWin app to facilitate the same will be done in two days. The State has purchased 3.5 lakh doses of Covishield and 1.42 lakh doses of Covaxin and those will be used to inoculate the 45+ group, once the CoWin app is modified,” said Mr. Singhal.
Weightage for contract staff
The contract staff who work at the COVID facilities will be given an advantage of 5% marks in government exams for every six months of service and the government has issued orders in this regard, he said. The State has 6,870 ICU beds and 23,259 beds with oxygen facility in 637 COVID hospitals and a majority of them have been occupied. More beds will be added as the process of registering the notified COVID hospitals under Aarogyasri has begun, said Mr. Singhal. As per the revised allocation of medical oxygen by the Centre, the State got 561 tonnes in the past day, he added.
