Ahead of the world’s biggest vaccination drive, the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine reached Srinagar on Wednesday with the first dose to be given to health care workers from Saturday.
“Today, we received the first batch of Covid-19 vaccine. The vaccination drive will start from January 16 across the country and in J&K for which our department has already done the groundwork and mock drills,” J&K’s Immunisation Officer, Dr Qazi Haroon, said.
He said that the process to forward the vaccines to different areas, including those which are still snowbound, had begun so that the vaccination drive is started along with other states on January 16.
Dr Qazi said that they have arranged choppers to take vaccines to far off places and by Friday the process will be completed. Pertinently, in the first phase of the vaccination drive, 30 crore people in the country will be covered.
The central government has assured that 100% of Covid-19 vaccine doses will reach all states and Union Territories by January 14. India has authorised two Covid-19 vaccines - indigenous Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and the Oxford-AstraZeneca & Serum Institute of India vaccine Covishield for emergency use.