Punjab Government on Sunday maintained that the Centre must provide the Corona vaccine “free of cost” to all, without any discrimination.
Asserting this while addressing a press conference, the state Health and Family Welfare Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu said that the Narendra Modi led Central Government could not backtrack from its duty to supply free corona vaccine to Punjab at the earliest.
Notably, the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) on Sunday accorded approval to two coronavirus vaccines for restricted use.
The Punjab Government is planning to provide the much-awaited vaccine dose to a target population of about 70 lakhs in a phased manner for free once it is made available by the Central Government.
Punjab has a population of 2,77,04,236 as per Census-2011. By vaccinating 70 lakh people, it will cover over 25 percent of its population.
“Punjab has been proactive in taking prompt decisions regarding controlling the pandemic. Now, the Modi Government cannot backtrack from its duty to supply the vaccine to Punjab for free,” he said.
1.60L HEALTH WORKERS AMONG FIRST TO GET COVID-19 VACCINE IN PUNJAB
Sidhu maintained that Punjab’s nearly 1.60 lakh health workers will receive COVID-19 vaccine in the first phase. Principal Secretary (Health) Hussan Lal said that the data regarding 1.60 lakh healthcare workers have already been uploaded on the CoWin portal — an online platform for monitoring the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine. “The vaccine, which is coming, will first be given to 1.60 lakh healthcare workers in the state,” said the Minister.
Giving details of the vaccination process, Lal said that after health workers, vaccine will be administered to around three lakh frontline workers engaged in delivery of essential services. The frontline workers include police, officials of the revenue department and municipal workers, who have been further classified as sanitation workers in COVID care centre, waste collectors, sweeper, waste processing plant operators, urban local bodies staff, cremation ground staff, maintenance staff and miscellaneous staff. Thereafter, people above 50 years and those aged below 50 with co-morbid conditions will be covered under the inoculation drive. To a question on the timeframe of the vaccination drive, Lal said that it will depend upon the availability of vaccine.
PUNJAB CAN VACCINATE 4L IN A DAY
The state Principal Secretary (Health) Hussan Lal on Sunday claimed that the State has the capacity to administer four lakh vaccines in a day.
“Punjab has identified 1.60 lakh health workers to receive the first dose of the vaccine while the estimated number of frontline workers of different departments is around three lakh. About 65 lakh beneficiaries are in the two categories of 50 years and above and people below 50 with underlying health conditions,” said the Lal.
A total of 11,000 vaccination sites have been identified across the state. The state has around 4,000 trained vaccinators. “If we get a large number of doses, we can also use doctors, pharmacists, dental doctors and nurses as vaccinators,” he said, adding that the state has enough storage capacity for COVID-19 vaccine.
A state-level vaccine store has been set up in Chandigarh, the officials said.Punjab has already conducted a dry run for vaccination in Ludhiana and Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar.
The mock drill of the distribution and administration of COVID-19 vaccine was being conducted in Patiala on Sunday. Health Minister Balbir Singh Sidhu shared that the State Government has made all the arrangements for rolling out the immunization drive as soon as the vaccine is made available by the Central government.
STATE HAS STORAGE CAPACITY OF ONE CR VACCINES IN COLD CHAINS
“The state has established storage capacity of one crore vaccines in its own cold chain centres,” said the Minister. Sidhu said that the State has established robust storage capacity of one crore vaccines in State’s own Cold Chain Centres. “Punjab has also achieved more than 95percent of routine vaccination of children which is highest in the country,” he said.