The district administration is gearing up to administer the first round of vaccines in the district by Sankranti in January.
The first set of people to be vaccinated will be frontline health workers, and the district administration has already identified 60,000 health workers in the district who will be given the vaccine.
A 16-member task force committee headed by District Collector V. Vinay Chand is meeting on a regular basis to work out the final modalities.
It is learnt that the State government is also working closely with the Union Health Ministry to give final touches to the roll-out plan and high-level talks are on regarding pricing and other logistic and economic aspects.
According to a senior officer from the District Health Department, two vaccines manufactured by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, are likely to pave their way to the district.
The Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is also getting ready and its third trial is yet to be cleared, Principal of Andhra Medical College Dr. P.V. Sudhakar said.
According to District Immunisation Officer Jeevan Rani, the static refrigeration system in the district is ready and 1 lakh vaccines can be stored at any given point.
“This apart, what is required is a dynamic and mobile cold chain and we are ready for it as we already have a regular ongoing immunisation programme,” said Dr. Sudhakar.
According to him, the Moderna vaccine needs to be frozen at minus 20 degree Celsius, but they can be stored for 30 days in a refrigerator at 2 to 8 degree Celsius.
“We are equipped with the static refrigeration system to store the vaccines, and our immunisation team that has been running various immunisation programmes such as DPT and polio, are trained to store vaccines in mobile freezer boxes and vaccinate people,” he said.
“But the challenging aspect will be to identify new routes and employ more vehicles and vaccinators, as the vaccine needs to be given to a large number of people across a vast and diverse geographical area, and that too within a short period of time,” said Dr. Sudhakar.
According to the plan, in the second phase, two lakh other frontline workers such as GVMC staff, sanitisation workers, police personnel and revenue officials, will be vaccinated.
In the third phase, the vaccine will be administered to eight lakh people in the district who are in the 50-plus age group with co-morbidities.
The district has a population of around 47 lakh, and after the first three phases, the remanining 37 lakh will be vaccinated in phases.
