With 11 Covid-19 vaccination sites, Victoria to inoculate 1,100 health workers per day

The six health facilities that have been selected for the first day of Covid vaccination, of 760 vaccination sites in the city, are waiting for the vaccines to be sent to them on Saturday morning.

The hospitals have also readied a separate ward for reactions like anaphylaxis (severe allergic reaction to medication, symptoms of which include rash, low pulse, and shock).

Victoria Hospital campus will have 11 vaccination sites, St John’s Hospital nine, KC General Hospital three and CV Raman General Hospital one. The other two are Jayanagar General Hospital and Mallasandra primary health centre. Though Victoria is required to vaccinate only 100 beneficiaries, they have got permission to vaccinate 200 health workers at two of their sites on Saturday itself — 100 at PMSSY and 100 at the Institute of Nephrourology (INU).

A senior doctor at Victoria Hospital said: “Though we won’t be one of the vaccination sites that the Prime Minister is inaugurating, the first floor auditorium of PMSSY Hospital in Victoria has been chosen for Saturday’s launch. We will begin at 11.30 am as soon as the Prime Minister finishes the virtual inauguration. In all, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) and its affiliated hospitals have 6,000 staffers, and with 11 vaccination sites, we can finish vaccinating all our staff within six days.”

The hospital campus has readied a 20-bed casualty ward in the tower block for anaphylaxis.

The 11 vaccination sites are located at: INU (two sites), two sites at BMCRI, two sites at PMSSY, two sites at Victoria Hospital (one in the radiotherapy department in ‘H’ Block), two sites at the Government Dental College, and one at Vani Vilas Hospital.

Ambulance on stand by

An ambulance and a five-member central team with senior professors (anaesthetists and intensivists) has been created to deal with anaphylaxis.

Apart from this, a government hospital located on Mysore Road where 60 health workers are being vaccinated has been mapped to Victoria Hospoital to treat any adverse events.

Container ICU

At KC General Hospital, there are 600 staffers and there are three vaccination sites.

Dr B R Venkateshaiah, medical superintendent, KC General Hospital, Malleswaram, said: “Two vaccination sites will be inside the hospital and the third will be in a container ICU that was recently set up. Pandals have been set up for a waiting area. There’s vaccine hesitancy among our staffers, so we don’t know how many of them will turn up on the actual day.

"A 10-bed ward adjacent to the first vaccination site has been set up for anaphylaxis.”

St John’s Hospital has nine vaccination sites in its new block in a single building and 6,000 of its staffers that have to be vaccinated. CV Raman General Hospital has 312 staffers who have to be vaccinated.