Finally, the civic authority of Nagpur has prepared its three centres to kick start vaccination for 18-44 years age group from today. Mayor DayashankarTiwari and Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B have jointly appealed to youths to take advantage of the drive and get them registered for the jabs. For start, the vaccination for youths would be available only at Indira Gandhi Rugnalay, Gandhi Nagar Square; Panchpaoli Maternity Home, Panchpaoli; and Isolation Hospital, Imambada. Mayor said, the vaccine stock would be reaching district on Saturday morning and hence administration of jabs would start from 2 pm onwards. Mayor also said May 1 is also foundation day of State of Maharashtra; it is a good day to start vaccination for youths who are future of the country. On Day One of the drive, the vaccination programme would be from 2 pm to 5 pm and from the next day, it will be daily from 10 am to 5 pm at these three centres only. Since there is limited availability of doses, the administration of jabs for 18- 44 years age group is going to be limited at the three centres only. After May 18, State Government has indicated that stock availability from vaccine manufacturer would increase and then NMC can step up their campaign and rollout jabs for the new age group beneficiaries at other centres also. The duo said, vaccination is a big weapon against novel coronavirus and everybody should take it. For the time being Maharashtra Government would be releasing 10,000 vials for Nagpur District of which NMC allocation is of 6,000.
There are instructions from State that the stock should be judiciously used and the stock should last for at least a week and hence NMC said its going to provide jabs to maximum 200 to 250 citizens to being with. The vaccination campaign, which is currently underway at Government centres, will be free of cost. Citizens above the age of 18 years wanting to book an appointment for their vaccination should register online on Arogya Setu or Covin app. Only those who have registered on-line will be able to get the vaccine and they should bring their Aadhaar card with them when they come to the centre for vaccination. As per the chart released by State Government, for Akola about 7,500 vials are released, to Amravati-7,500, Buldhana7,500; Washim-5,000, Yavatmal-7,500. One vial can be used to inoculate 10 persons and strict instructions are issued to avoid wastage and ensure that only after sufficient number of beneficiaries is present the vaccination should start. For Akola Division about 35,000 vials stock is released. At Nagpur Division 42,500 stock is being delivered including 5,000 for Bhandara,Wardha and Gondia districts respectively; 10,000 to Nagpur District and Chandrapur, 75,000 to Gadchiroli. Municipal Commissioner said that NMC has some spare supplies and that too will be utilised to inoculate the youths and once more stock arrives the centres number would increase.
