Nagaland to begin Covid-19 vaccination drive from January 16

Kohima, Jan. 11 (EMN): Close on the heels of the Centre’s announcement, Nagaland government has said that it will roll out the much-awaited Covid-19 vaccination drive on January 16 along with the rest of the country.

‘The government of India will make the Covid vaccine available through the existing cold chain of the immunisation programme in a phased manner,’ said the minister for Planning and Coordination, Land Revenue and Parliamentary Affairs, Neiba Kronu, who is also one of the spokespersons of High Powered Committee (HPC) on Covid-19.

The minister informed through an update that priority would be given to health care workers in health sector in the first phase of the vaccination drive, to be followed frontline workers, police and administration in the second phase, and those above 50 years of age and below 50 years with comorbidities in the third phase.

‘An estimated 19,690 healthcare workers in both government and private sectors would be vaccinated starting January 16,’ he said, adding that there are approximately 30,000 frontline workers and about 3,49,757 persons above 50 years of age, while the number of persons below 50 with comorbidities is yet to be estimated.

The minister informed that the vaccines to be used are Covishield and Covaxin, which were approved by the Drugs Controller General of India earlier this month for restricted emergency use.

Covishield is developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University in partnership with Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII), while Covaxin is developed by Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech in collaboration with the India Council of Medical Research and National Institute of Virology in Pune.

On the number of persons to be vaccinated on the first day of rollout, Kronu said it would be decided only after receiving the vaccines from the Centre.

Meanwhile, the minister informed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah held a video conference with the HPC on Covid-19 under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio along with Minister for Health and Family Welfare S Pangnyu Phom, Advisor and co-spokesperson Mmhonlumo Kikon, Advisor Neikiesalie Kire, and officials from the Health and Family Welfare department to discussed preparedness of the state for Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

The department of Health had earlier updated in its weekly bulletin that the state is geared up for the first phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive and as many as 1206 session sites had been identified for the exercise. It may be mentioned that the state had already conducted dry run for Covid-19 vaccination on two occasions as part of preparation for the inoculation drive.