The Palamau administration has started preparing a list of frontline workers, doctors, nurses and other such personnel, following Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement that a Covid-19 vaccine may arrive in the country within a “few weeks”.

The administration is keen on getting on getting frontline health workers vaccinated first as per the directives of the Centre.

Deputy Commissioner of Palamau Shashi Ranjan said, “We have with us a list of 9,372 frontline workers who carried out the tough task of fighting the coronavirus from its beginning, and during its peak as well. We have asked private hospitals and health institutes in our district to give us their lists of frontline workers. We expect the total count to be well within 12,000 to 13,000.”

“No frontline worker will be left out of the list,” the DC guaranteed.

He also explained that Palamau district reproductive child health officer Dr Anil Kumar Singh has been instructed to keep cold chain, cold box, deep freezers, ice land refrigerators and vaccine carriers ready and functional to receive and store Covid-19 vaccines when they arrive.

Singh said, “Palamau district has a total of 14 cold chains.There is one cold chain each at the 10 community health centres. Apart from these 10 cold chains, there is one cold chain each at Daltonganj, urban area, Haidernagar and at Kishunpur.”

The functionality of these cold chains is being overseen by the National Cold Chain Management Information System, under the Union health ministry.

On the other hand, the number of vaccinators in the district is around 125, with a fleet of 165 ANMs ( auxiliary nursing midwife).

“Immunisation and vaccination are just two things. There is a thin wall between the two. Immunisation of children can’t be stopped even when Covid-19 vaccination will be underway,” Singh explained.

According to sources, the Palamau district, in its cold chains, stores 1,50,000 doses of polio vaccines, and when the bulk of Covid-19 vaccines arrives, maintenance will be taken care of.

“We hold 1,50,000 doses of the polio vaccine. We will make space for Coronavirus vaccines as well,” the child health officer said.

“We have chalked out a huge plan for January 17 when the country as well as our district will be observing the National Immunisation Day. There will be a massive drive to immunise our children across the district on the day,” the DC said.

Asked if the district has sufficient auto-disable syringes, Singh said, “We expect more to come with the coronavirus vaccines. A disposable syringe is useless for all purposes after it is used once.”

On the issue of cold chains, deep freezers and other such equipment getting damaged due to fluctuating electricity supply, Singh informed, “In our lingo it is called sickness rate of these tools. The national average is 2 per cent. However, in Palamau the sickness rate is 1.3 per cent. We remain really alert regarding machinery not becoming sick for fault in electricity supply.”