COVID vaccine launched, prominent doctors first recipients

A health worker being administered COVID vaccine in Srinagar
A health worker being administered COVID vaccine in Srinagar

Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Jan 16: The COVID-19 vaccination drive was today carried out across Kashmir with the first COVID-19 vaccine shot given at the SKIMS, Soura to Director of the Institute.
At Soura, Dr A G Ahanger, along with many senior doctors which include Dr Salim Wani, Head of the Department Urology, Dr Farooq Jan, Medical Superintendent SKIMS and Dr G H Yatoo, Nodal Officer for the COVID at SKIMS were given the vaccine shots.

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Dr Ahangar was the first one to be given the vaccine shot at SKIMS as the event which was attended by the Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the LG, Dr Shahid Iqbal Chowdhary, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar and Junaid Azim Mattu, Mayor Srinagar.
In Shopian and Budgam districts, Medical Superintendent DH Shopian Dr Jameel Mir, CMO Budgam Dr Tajamul Hussian including several others received their vaccine shots.
At JLNM hospital, apart from the rest of the healthcare workers who were to be vaccinated on the day, Dr Bilquees Shah who has been managing the COVID care at the hospital also received the vaccine shot.
Further, Dr Ashraf HoD Nephrology, SKIMS, Dr Tanveer Rather HoD Nuclear Medicine, SKIMS apart from other doctors, nurses were given vaccine shots.
Dr Qazi Haroon, State Immunization Officer told Excelsior that the day went well and all the recipients of the vaccine are doing well and there have been no adverse effects reported so far.
At SKIMS, the drive was of e-launch by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the function was held at the Auditorium of the hospital.
Various Heads of the Departments who received the first shot of the vaccine emphasized the significance of this Immunization Programme world over to comprehensively combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the LG, while speaking on the occasion emphasized on the importance of following the protocols such as wearing a mask, hand /respiratory hygiene and social distancing as was reiterated by the Prime Minister while launching the vaccination drive.
He also lauded SKIMS for leading from the front amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, Mayor of Srinagar (SMC), Junaid Azim Mattu, also spoke on the occasion and appreciated all healthcare workers for their efforts and appealed the general public to follow the protocols till the pandemic is over.
As the drive has kick-started, the rest of the healthcare workers are going to be vaccinated in the coming days.
As the heads of several departments came forward for the vaccination, the officials said that it was good to and that such moves will further instil faith in the effectiveness of the vaccine.
The Phase-1 is set to take at least two weeks during which all the healthcare workers will be vaccinated and only after that the Phase-2 of the nation-wide drive will be started.
Earlier, as per the calculations, 4000 healthcare workers were scheduled to be vaccinated across J&K at 40 different vaccination sites. In Kashmir, 20 such vaccination sites were set up for the day where the healthcare workers were vaccinated.
There were limits put on the vaccine doses to be administered on the day. At one vaccination site, only 100 vaccine shots were to be given throughout the day.
Notably, there are around one lakh healthcare workers in J&K, while around 60,000 healthcare workers are from Kashmir division who are to be vaccinated in the Phase-1.
Earlier, J&K received around 1.4 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine out of which Kashmir got 79,000 and Jammu.
The vaccination will be carried out in 4 different Phases, in Phase-1 which has already begun healthcare workers will be vaccinated, in Phase-2 the frontline workers which include police personnel, paramilitary personnel and the municipality workers will be vaccinated.
In Phase 3, the population above 50 and Co-morbid are to be vaccinated and in Phase 4, the rest of the population will be vaccinated.