State asks med establishments to send list of workers to be given Covid vaccine

Kolkata: All the private and government-run hospitals across the state have been asked by the Health department to prepare a list of priority groups which would be vaccinated first.

A comprehensive data would be made by all the health establishments where the names of doctors, nurses, paramedics, group D staff and conservancy workers would feature. They are the ones who are fighting the Covid battle from the front and hence they need to be vaccinated first.

After receiving instruction from the Centre, the state government is all set to prepare the list and hand it over to the concerned agency in the Centre which would do other formalities. According to sources in the state health department, excel sheets are being

prepared. The names of around 1,000 people would be mentioned on each excel page. Those who have been working as accredited social health activists (ASHA) and Anganwadi workers would also be administered the Covid vaccine. People who are part of Ayush treatment in the state and also those working in various dental colleges and hospitals in the state in various capacities would also get a vaccine in the first phase.

All the hospitals and health centers would collect and prepare data of their employees, their names and contact numbers.Some doctors in the city and health experts however raised questions that Centre's decision to prepare a list of the potential receivers of Covid vaccine was taken hastily as the vaccine has yet to clear various necessary parameters

before being ready for the market.

The National Health Mission has been working in coordination with the state health department to complete the data preparation. Union health minister Harsh Vardhan had already announced that the country is working towards vaccinating 20 to 25 crore of its people, about one-sixth of its entire population, against Covid by July next year.

The Centre believes that it will be made possible as most of the vaccines are under development and they are likely to become available early next year.