The South Central Railway (SCR) zone has given the first shots of the COVID-19 vaccine to its frontline staff at the Central Railway Hospital in Lallaguda, Secunderabad on Monday. "The first shots were given to healthcare staff like doctors, nurses and housekeeping staff," said a railway zone official.
According to the railway zone officials, the frontline staff discharged yeoman service during the coronavirus pandemic, putting their physical, mental and social wellbeing at stake. "Due to their dedicated service, the healthcare staff of the zone are the first to be given COVID-19 vaccination doses, as part of the nationwide COVID-19 vaccine drive to the frontline healthcare personnel," he said.
The First Frontline Health Care staff of Central Railway Hospital, Lallguda, Secunderabad administered with Covid-19 vaccine shot in presence of Shri Gajanan Mallya, General Manager, SCR today as part of the COVID Vaccination ,, Drive @RailMinIndia @PiyushGoyal pic.twitter.com/5dq2ZnSU8m
— South Central Railway (@SCRailwayIndia) January 18, 2021
The zonal railway hospital received 593 doses of the vaccine, in coordination with the state and central governments. "These vaccine shots will be given to all healthcare staff belonging to the health units (railway) of Secunderabad, Hyderabad, Chilkalguda, Kacheguda and Moula-Ali over a period of six days," said the official.
The railway zone's General Manager Gajanan Mallya was present at the hospital on Monday when the first shots were being jabbed, and expressed happiness over the development. After lauding the frontline staff, Mallya conducted an extensive inspection of the hospital, including interacting with patients about its services.
On Monday, in Telangana, the COVID-19 vaccination programme was underway in a total of 324 centres,a senior official of the state government told PTI. “Each site will administer 50 people. Only Covishield will be given as Covaxin is yet to reach the sites," the official said. Telangana received 20,000 doses of the Covaxin as against 3.64 lakh of Covishied.
The COVID-19 vaccine was rolled out in Telangana on Saturday with about 4,000 healthcare personnel receiving the first dose. State Director of Public Health G Srinivasa Rao had said the vaccination programme was started at 140 sites, out of the 1,213 identified sites in the state. While vaccination has been targeted to be given to 4,296 on January 16, it was administered to 3,962 people, official sources said.
With PTI inputs