Nagpur city is gearing up to administer the COVID vaccine to the people of 45 years and above age group, starting from Thursday. As per the instructions and guidelines issued by Central Government, the civic body has made all the arrangements at 86 centres including several private as well as Government hospitals. The civic body had initially faced some problems when vaccination drive started for the frontline healthworkers. Now, the preparedness of the whole machinery has improved a lot. Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari and Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B have appealed people to take the corona vaccine on priority.

 

Dr Nitin Raut, Guardian Minister said, “People should come forward for the vaccination in large number. Vaccine is good and can save us from the dreaded virus. People should not hurry. If they get themselves registered they could get the vaccine in a proper way.” Till now, 2,18,528 citizens have been administered vaccine in Nagpur. This number includes 37,443 healthworkers, 25,087 frontline healthworkers, 1,02,555 number of citizens of age above 60-years and 32,195 suffering from various ailments. Additional Commissioner Ram Joshi said, “The people having 45 years of age and above should get themselves registered online. They have to show documents like Aadhaar card, PAN card, voters identity, Passport, driving license. Citizens should visit the website and do the login on ‘http://www.cowin.gov.in/home’. In case people face any difficulty during online registration, they can visit the nearest zonal office of Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC).”

 

NMC has aimed at vaccinating 6.5 lakh people in the drive starting on Thursday. NMC has made all arrangements of registration at all offices situated in 10 zones. Dr Sanjay Chilkar, Medical Health Officer of NMC informed, “Priority would be given to healthworkers, frontline healthworkers, people suffering from various ailments. The persons above 60 years of age are to be given the second dose. Such persons would be prefered over the others along with those registering themselves online.” Dr Chilkar has made it clear, the vaccine is being given free of cost in Government hospitals while Government has asked private hospitals not to charge more for vaccination beyond the stipulated charges. Dr Chilkar further said, “There are 46 private and 40 Government hospitals where the vaccine would be given. The vaccination centres at Manewada Primary Urban Health Centre near Shahu Garden; Dipti Signal Primary Urban Health Centre, near Sanjay Nagar Hindi Corporation Schools will add to existing list of centres.”

 

Vaccination in two shifts Vaccination would be held in two shifts at Government as well as at private hospitals. They include Babulban Primary Urban Health Centre, K T Nagar Primary Urban Health Centre, Indira Gandhi Rugnalaya, Gandhi Nagar; Isolation Hospital, Pachpaoli centre, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH) and late Prabhakarrao Datke Mahal Diagnostic Centre. All these centres will remain open for vaccination from 8 am to 10 pm. Ram Joshi and Sanjay Nipane had convened a meeting with Non-Government Organisations (NGOs) on Wednesday to seek their assistance in vaccination. Joshi and Nipane urged the NGOs to help the teams of health department that would be doing vaccination. NGOs have showed readiness to take the responsibility of centres. Those attended the meeting include Nirbhay Jain, Deputy Commissioner of NMC; Milind Meshram were present. The NGOs whose representatives took part in the meeting include Rotary Club, Lions Club, Together We Can, Purva, Maitri Pariwar, MahaIndra Welfare Association, Lokmanya Sanskrutik and Krida Mandal and others.