Covid vaccination rollout: No report of any side effects, allergies in J&K

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir has not reported any side-effects among the health workers who were inoculated on Saturday.

Nearly 200 health workers, doctors, and head of departments received ‘Covishield’ jab on the first day of nation-wide vaccination campaign on Saturday.

“We closely monitored all the 2200 people who received shots on Saturday. We checked with our back end teams. There is no report of any allergies, reactions, or side effects. All of them have resumed their routine,” Dr. Qazi Haroon, State Immunization Officer, told The Kashmir Monitor.

Dr. Haroon said he spoke to one of the doctors at SKIMS, who received the jab, for the feedback.

“He was fit and fine. In fact, he told me that he is back to routine. He was entering operation theatre to conduct surgery. All of the 2200 people have gone back to their duties. We have not come across any untoward report so far,” he said.

More than 40 HODs at Sher-i-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) and 30 HODs and doctors at Government Medical College, Jammu volunteered to take the first COVID shot on Saturday in a bid to clear apprehensions and instill confidence among the health workers.

Forty immunization centers have been set up across 20 districts in Jammu and Kashmir. Each person will be administered two doses of vaccines within a month. 

“Today is the second day of vaccination. No vaccination drive was conducted on Sunday. We will resume the drive today. We are only administering Covishield,” he said.

The first dose of administering vaccines will be completed in 15 days. Nearly 1.7 lakh health workers will be immunized in the first phase in Jammu and Kashmir. Of whom 60000 are in Kashmir

Last week, Jammu and Kashmir received the first batch of 1, 46,500 doses of Covishield vaccine from the Serum Institute of India, Pune. While 79,000 doses will be administered in the Kashmir division, 67,500 jabs will be given in the Jammu division.

In the first phase, health workers will be vaccinated. It will be followed by frontline workers including those from the revenue department.

Earlier, divisional commissioner Kashmir PK Pole told The Kashmir Monitor that all those to be inoculated in the first phase will be closely monitored for any reaction or side effects if any.

“Every person will be closely monitored after being administered the vaccine. Those, who will be vaccinated on January 16, will get the second dose on February 16. There is no room for delay. It has to be taken in one month.  The data will be entered into the website to keep track of the things,” said Pole.