SHILLONG, Nov 23 - The Meghalaya Government has identified 25,000 healthcare workers for providing assistance in the vaccination process for COVID-19 when the vaccine is made available to the State.
Although there is some time left when such a vaccine is made available, the Central Government has sent a directive to the State Government to identify health workers in advance. The identified healthcare workers in the State are both from the public and private sector for the smooth vaccination process.
The State Government has therefore constituted a task force to plan in advance for the distribution of the vaccine and subsequent vaccination process of the residents of the State.
As part of the plan, a meeting for COVID-19 vaccine was held recently under the chairmanship of Sampath Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary, Health and Family Welfare at the National Health Mission (NHM) office here.
The meeting was also attended by the Mission Director of NHM, Director of Health Services Research, representatives from Social Welfare Department, Urban Affairs Department, United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organisation, various religious organisations, officials from the Health Department and NHM.
�The objective of the meeting was to take advance and preparatory steps to introduce the COVID-19 vaccine in the state,� health officials said.
In the meeting, all the inputs and suggestions offered by the various representatives were noted. They expected that roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine would be smooth and successful.
The whole exercise of vaccination will be taken up in a phase-wise manner. The 25,000 healthcare workers identified have been tasked with the distribution and also vaccination process during the first phase.
Officials said, considering the magnitude of the exercise, advance planning and preparation is necessary. Hence, the task force had met to decide on the modalities of implementation.
The Union Government is yet to communicate the decision on the vaccine that is supposed to be administered, the State health officials said. As of now, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine looks the most promising with 70 to 90 percent effectiveness against the virus without any serious side effects in the trial phase, besides being cost-effective.
SHILLONG, Nov 23 - The Meghalaya Government has identified 25,000 healthcare workers for providing assistance in the vaccination process for COVID-19 when the vaccine is made available to the State.
Although there is some time left when such a vaccine is made available, the Central Government has sent a directive to the State Government to identify health workers in advance. The identified healthcare workers in the State are both from the public and private sector for the smooth vaccination process.
The State Government has therefore constituted a task force to plan in advance for the distribution of the vaccine and subsequent vaccination process of the residents of the State.
As part of the plan, a meeting for COVID-19 vaccine was held recently under the chairmanship of Sampath Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary, Health and Family Welfare at the National Health Mission (NHM) office here.
The meeting was also attended by the Mission Director of NHM, Director of Health Services Research, representatives from Social Welfare Department, Urban Affairs Department, United Nations Development Programme, World Health Organisation, various religious organisations, officials from the Health Department and NHM.
�The objective of the meeting was to take advance and preparatory steps to introduce the COVID-19 vaccine in the state,� health officials said.
In the meeting, all the inputs and suggestions offered by the various representatives were noted. They expected that roll-out of the COVID-19 vaccine would be smooth and successful.
The whole exercise of vaccination will be taken up in a phase-wise manner. The 25,000 healthcare workers identified have been tasked with the distribution and also vaccination process during the first phase.
Officials said, considering the magnitude of the exercise, advance planning and preparation is necessary. Hence, the task force had met to decide on the modalities of implementation.
The Union Government is yet to communicate the decision on the vaccine that is supposed to be administered, the State health officials said. As of now, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine looks the most promising with 70 to 90 percent effectiveness against the virus without any serious side effects in the trial phase, besides being cost-effective.
