By PTI
ITANAGAR: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Thursday said the state government will launch the vaccination drive for people in the age group of 18 to 44 years from May 17.
The health department will prepare a schedule for sessions for which registration on the ‘Cowin’ platform will start from May 15, he said on Twitter.
“Arunachal will start vaccination for 18-44 years from 17th May 2021. The health department will schedule session and registration will start from 15th May on ‘Cowin’ portal,” Khandu wrote on the microblogging site.
The state government had deferred the roll-out of the inoculation drive for those in the 18-44 years age group from May 1, as the state was facing some ‘technical’ issues.
The northeastern state had already placed an order of 4 lakh doses of vaccines and received a consignment of 20,180 vials of ‘Covishield’ on Wednesday.
State Immunisation Officer Dr Dimong Padung said that 2,98,924 people have been inoculated since the beginning of the immunisation programme in January.
“At least 13.86 per cent of the state’s population has so far registered for vaccination. Of them, 12.53 per cent received the first jab and 4.61 per cent got both doses of the vaccine,” Padung said.
During the day, the chief minister held a meeting with the health department officials to review the COVID situation in the state.
“Reviewed the status of oxygen in our hospitals. Glad to know that by month-end, we will have 500 oxygen beds with seven oxygen generation plants functioning in the state,” the chief minister stated.
Khandu said he has directed the officials to ramp up the number of beds with oxygen support to 1,000 and the life- saving gas generation units.
