The first consignment of 4,33,500 doses of Covishield, the vaccine developed by Serum Institute of India against COVID-19, arrived in the State on Wednesday. It was received at the airports with much fanfare and under high security.
One batch of 1,80,000 doses for Ernakulam region (Ernakulam, Thrissur, Idukki, Kottayam and Palakkad districts) and 1,19,500 doses for Kozhikode region (Kozhikode, Malappuram, Wayanad, Kannur and Kasaragod districts) arrived in the morning at the Cochin International Airport, while another batch of 1,34,000 doses for Thiruvananthapuram region (Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta districts) arrived in the evening at the Thiruvananthapuram International Airport.
The consignments were received at the airport by the district administration and senior Health officials and despatched to the regional vaccine stores at Ernakulam, Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram in special vehicles maintaining the cold chain.
The vaccine will be distributed to the district vaccine stores on Thursday according to the allocation for each district. One batch of 1,100 doses from the vaccine allocation for Kozhikode region will be distributed at Mahe. From the district vaccine stores, vaccines will be transported to the vaccination sites in respective districts in time for the official launch of COVID-19 on Saturday.
The vaccine allocation for districts are as follows: Thiruvananthapuram, 64,020 doses, Kollam 25,960, Pathanamthitta 21,030, Alappuzha 22,460, Kottayam 29,170, Idukki 9,240, Ernakulam 73,000, Thrissur 37,640, Palakkad 30,870, Malappuram 28,890, Kozhikode 40,970, Wayanad 9,590, Kannur 32,650 and Kasaragod 6,860 doses.
In every district, registered health-care workers in State Health Services, Central Health Services and Armed Forces Health Service will be administered the vaccine on January 16, following the nationwide launch of COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Covishield vaccination will be a two dose regimen, administered 28 days apart. A second dose would be reserved for every beneficiary receiving the vaccine from the first consignment
On January 16, launch day, 133 vaccination sites have been arranged across the State, with 12 sites in Ernakulam district, 11 sites each in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode districts and nine sites each in the remaining districts.
The number of sites will be increased in districts after the launch day. Thiruvananthapuram district will have 138 vaccination sites, with 111 sites in the public sector and another 27 in the private sector. All health-care workers who have registered their names would be allocated vaccination sites from where they can receive the vaccine. The entire end-to-end vaccination and reporting process is digitised and managed on the CoWIN (Covid-19 Vaccine Intelligent Network) platform.
A total of 3,68,866 health-care workers, including 1,73,253 in the public sector and 1, 95,613 in the private sector, are the beneficiaries of the vaccines in the first phase.
