Guwahati (The Stellar News)Nava Thakuria: As Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the massive Covid-19 vaccination drive on 16 January 2021 from the national capital through video conferencing, the north-eastern (NE) States have also joined hands in the noble initiative. Terming it as the world’s largest novel corona virus vaccination drive PM Modi stated that this type of large-scale campaign was never attempted in the history and thus it shows India’s capability. Appreciating the scientists who were involved in discovering the vaccines, Modi claimed that New Delhi approved two vaccines (Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield and Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin) are much cheaper and equally effective. In first phase, 30 million people will be vaccinated and later ten times more populace will be covered, stated Modi adding that only three countries (China, India and the US) have today more than 300 million population.
Assam joined the country wide Covid-19 vaccination program where nearly two lakh health workers are scheduled to get vaccinated in the first stage. State chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal was present at Assam medical college hospital in Dibrugarh where as State health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma supervised the program at Gauhati medical college hospital. Dr Umesh Ch Sarma, retired vice-chancellor of Shrimanta Shankardeva university of health sciences received the first dose of Covid-19 vaccine in the State in presence of the health minister. Several other senior doctors including Dr Achyut Baisya, Dr Abhijit Sarma, Dr DJ Borah, etc were also administered the vaccine as a confidence building measure among the mass. In Dibrugarh the medical college principal Dr Sanjiv Kakati received the first dose of vaccine followed by Dr. RP Medhi, Dr Girin Gogoi, Dr Shantanu Lahakar, Dr Hem Chandra Kakati etc. Nearly 1,90,000 corona-warriors will be vaccinated within eight weeks. The health department trained over eight thousand nurses for the initiative to be monitored by around 1300 supervisors.
In Arunachal Pradesh, the State home minister Bamang Felix launched the vaccination process at Tomo Riba health institute at Naharlagun. Beneficiaries in the first phase will confined among over 23 thousand healthcare personalities and seven thousand frontline workers. The State has reportedly received 32000 doses of vaccine. Mizoram also joined the initiative as State health minister R Lalthangliana graced the vaccination drive at Aizawl civil hospital. A middle age healthcare lady took the vaccine first in the State. Lalthangliana appealed everyone to continue following the corona-guidelines. Mizoram received 18,500 doses of vaccine. Sikkim chief minister PS Tamang and State health minister MK Sharma graced the occasion at STNM hospital in Gangtok where the vaccination program was launched. CM Tamang termed the initiative as a great example of Aatmanirbhar Bharat envisioned by PM Modi as both the used vaccines are manufactured in India.
The State has received 12,500 doses of vaccine in the first consignment. Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K Sangma, Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio, Manipur CM Biren Sing, Tripura CM Biplav Kr Deb launched the vaccination drive in their respective capitals.Altogether 2,245 people died of Covid-19 complications (against over 3,30,000 tested positive) in the region, where Assam tops the list with 1,065 casualties followed by Tripura (390), Manipur (365), Meghalaya (144), Sikkim (130), Nagaland (86), Arunachal Pradesh (56) and Mizoram (9) till date.
