COVID-19 vaccine Health care workers to be given priority
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, October 31 2020: Health care workers and health care service providers would be given priority for COVID-19 vaccination as and when the vaccine is available in the country.

According to information received from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Hospital Division, health care workers and health care service providers would be the first group of people who would be vaccinated against COVID-19 .

As a part of the Ministry's initiative to give priority to health care workers and health care service providers for vaccination against COVID-19, a database is being prepared.

All hospitals run by the Central Government and State Governments, private hospitals as well as medical colleges have been asked to furnish the number of doses of COVID-19 vaccine each of them would need as and when the vaccine is available in the country.

Likewise, the Ministry has asked RIMS authority to send details of all health care workers working at RIMS to its database.

As demanded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, RIMS authority has started collecting details of all health care workers working at the medical institute.

RIMS authority has been speculating that 40 to 90 per cent of health care workers working at the medical institute may get COVID-19 vaccine in the first phase of the vaccine being released.

Health care workers who are given COVID-19 vaccine in the first phase may also get a second dose in the second phase on priority basis, sources informed.

Even though RIMS authority has received a letter from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare which asked for details of health care workers, it is not yet clear whether the Health Department or the Directorate of Health has received any such letter or not.

Another source informed that the State Government has started compiling a list of health care providers working in the State for vaccination against COVID-19.The work of compiling a list of health care providers of Government and private hospitals which is being done with DCs as nodal officers should be completed by today.

In the meantime, private hospitals of the State have geared up to get necessary doses of COVID-19 vaccine as and when the vaccine is released for the first time.

Some private hospitals have already started selection of their own staff who would be given COVID-19 vaccine on priority, the sources added.

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