Vaccination drive progresses smoothly in Visakha Agency

A health worker preparing to administer a COVID vaccine at the ENT Hospital in Visakhapatnam. (Source: THE HINDU)

The vaccination programme for COVID-19 began in the 13 mandals of Visakhapatnam Agency, along with the nationwide launch on January 16.

Twelve days on, no adverse event following immunisation (AEFI) cases have been detected, ITDA Project Director S. Venkateswar confirmed.

In Visakha Agency, there are around 3,000 listed health workers, of whom around 2,400 are ASHA workers.

Around 60% of them have already taken the jab, but so far there have been no cases of adverse effects or reactions, said Dr. Venkateswar.

In 13 mandals in the Agency area, the government has 40 session sites ready for the vaccination programme, including 36 PHCs, two CHCs, one area hospital and one district hospital. But the vaccination programme is running in six to eight centres only on a rotation basis to cover all the mandals, as per the Union Government’s directions.

According to Dr. Venkateswar, adequate vaccines are available and a cold chain is ready in all the centres. In all centres, we have ice-lined refrigerators with generator back-up, he said.

District makes progress

Meanwhile, taking the entire district into consideration, till Wednesday evening, 18,000 health workers out of 34,761 have taken the vaccine.

“After initial hiccups, the pace has picked up in the last three to four days and we are averaging close to 1,000 to 1,200 jabs on a daily basis in about 63 session sites,” said Dr. Jeevan Rani, District Immunisation Officer.

Awareness levels have picked up and health workers have become more confident about the vaccine, she said. But she also added that the percentage of turnout continues to hover around 60 to 65%.

Glitches continue

However, the glitches with CoWIN App continue to bother the district administration.

The app was launched by the Union Government and is also maintained and monitored by it.

“The problem of repetition of names is continuing and we have been asking authorities to rectify it,” said Principal of Andhra Medical College and District COVID Special Officer P.V. Sudhakar.

The repetition is around 25-30% and this is reducing the effective turnout, he said.