Special drive for second dose of vaccine from tomorrow in Visakhapatnam

Visakhapatnam District Collector, V Vinay Chand IAS, has announced that a special vaccination drive, for the second dose of vaccine, would begin from Thursday, 22 April 2021 at 7:30 AM. This is to ensure the safety of people in Vizag during the second wave of the novel coronavirus. Almost 60,000 doses have been procured by the State Government and have been distributed to all the districts. More are in the process of being procured. Mr. Vinay Chand stated that only the individuals who have been vaccinated, with the first dose of the respective vaccine, are eligible for the second dose of the same vaccine. Approximately 40,000 people are due to get the second dose of vaccination from the Primary Healthcare Units (PHUs). Vaccines of both types, Covishield as well as Covaxin, are available for the second dose at the government Primary Health Care Units. 32,352 are set to take the Covishield vaccine and 6,759 for the Covaxin dose.

The Collector continued to elaborate by telling that almost 120 Primary Health Care Units have been allotted for the vaccination drive, with 47 Gramin Primary Health Care Centres, 72 in Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) limits, 3 Urban Primary Health Care Centers at Narsipatnam, and 2 Urban Primary Health Care Centers in Elamanchili. Eligible people in Visakhapatnam can get the second dose of vaccine here.

Talking about the availability of second dose vaccination resources, Mr. V Vinay Chand also stated “Our committed remedies are for the public hospitals. We are strongly committed to providing all the doses procured to the public hospitals. The vaccines are being made available only to the government healthcare centers”.

Condemning the manipulation of prices and availability of the stock of first dose of vaccines with the private hospitals, the District Collector stated that they are keeping a close watch on them. He stated that the private hospitals have to buy the vaccines, for the second dose, in the open market from the various manufacturers.

He further added that along with the special drive for the second dose of vaccine in Visakhapatnam, the doses for the first round of vaccination, due for people above 45 years of age, are also being procured. The date for their vaccination drive will be announced soon, before this weekend. Although the frontline workers have been vaccinated with the first dose, the remaining individuals are to be vaccinated with the first dose. All the individuals who have recovered from Covid-19 also have to be vaccinated after a period of 90 days.

In light of the swell in the Covid cases, the District Collector also stated that the government hospitals are to be converted into specialised Covid Hospitals. Government hospitals, such as KGH – CSR block,VIMS, Chest Hospital, and ENT Hospital, have been converted for the anticipated Covid-19 patients.