50 percent for frontline and healthcare workers’ second dose and 50 percent for public 

Mysore/Mysuru: The Mysuru District Administration has started the process of vaccinating residents who are above 45 years of age with first dose of Covishield. Fresh stocks have arrived in the district and the vaccination will be given at Primary Health Centres and designated vaccination centres including the Charaka Hospital. 

As per the Government notification, public can be vaccinated after the vaccination process (second dose) of frontline workers and healthcare workers is completed. If the frontline workers and healthcare workers do not come forward to receive their second jabs, such vials can be given as first dose for people above 45 years of age. 

In Mysuru, there are over 599 frontline workers and healthcare workers who are yet to get the second dose and among them, 383 are healthcare workers and 216 frontline workers. There are a total 73 healthcare workers who are yet to receive second dose of Covaxin and there are 110 frontline workers who are yet to receive second dose of Covaxin. 

There are 1,205 citizens who have to receive second dose of Covaxin. Including healthcare workers, frontline workers and citizens there are 1,388 persons who have to get the second jab of Covaxin. In all, there are 1,987 persons who have to receive Covishield and Covaxin in Mysuru. 

Some healthcare workers and frontline workers have already received their second dose of Covishield in the three-to-six week gap and they have used their alternative mobile number and documents for this. There are several who have been vaccinated with Covishield in January-February and priority will be given to them in this phase of vaccination, Dr. L. Ravi who is the nodal officer for vaccination in Mysuru district told Star of Mysore. 

“The expert panel on COVID vaccination in the country has recommended increasing the gap between two doses of Covishield to 12-16 weeks, deviating from European Union and UK suggestion to follow a 12-week interval between two shots of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Even the Centre has approved extending the gap between the two doses of the Covishield vaccine from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks following the recommendation from the panel,” he said and added that the protocol issued by the Centre is being followed across the country. 

As the time gap for the second dose has been increased, the authorities have decided to give the first dose of Covishield to public who are above 45 years of age. While 50 percent of the doses will be reserved for healthcare workers, frontline workers, Police and Panchayat Department staff, 50 percent will be reserved for public as per available stocks, Dr. Ravi added. 

Informative posters

In front of vaccination centres, posters and signboards have been put up informing the public about the vaccination schedules. Like at Charaka Hospital, boards have been put up informing the public that only Covishield is available for persons above 45 years of age and only second dose of Covaxin is available. 

Informative posters have been put up in both English and Kannada language – for Covishield it’s a gap of 84 days (12 weeks) and for Covaxin, the gap is 4-6 weeks or 24 days.