With the nationwide vaccination drive against coronavirus beginning from January 16, the first consignment of 4.63 lakh doses of vaccines arrived in Jaipur on Wednesday.
The state has received 20,000 doses of Covaxin, manufactured by Bharat Biotech and 5.43 lakh doses of Covishield manufactured by the Serum Institute of India.
The vaccines were transported by air and the consignment was unloaded at the Jaipur airport and taken to the state drug store centre in Adarsh Nagar area of the city under police escort.
The vaccines were brought to the drug store centre and taken inside at an auspicious time that was fixed by a priest. A pooja was done by the priest and flowers and a coconut offered to the vaccines amid chanting of mantras. After that the vaccines were stored in the centre which has four walk-in coolers of 26,000 litres capacity and the vaccines can be stored at temperatures between 2 and 8 degrees Celsius.
The vaccines will be stored in government drug centres in three districts with air connectivity – Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur – and will be distributed to other centres.
Health minister Raghu Sharma has said all preparations are complete for the vaccination drive in the state.
The government has trained 5,626 teams of health workers including doctors, ASHA workers, anganbari workers, swasthya mitras, paramedics for the vaccination drive.
In the first phase, 4.5 lakh frontline workers and healthcare workers will be administered the vaccines in the state. For the first phase, 3,056 medical institutions have been identified as session sites.
The state has set up three state-level, seven division level and 34 district level vaccine stores and 2,444 cold chain points have been made at community and primary health centres.
