SATURDAY, APRIL 27, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Goa received the first consignment of COVID-19 vaccines on Wednesday at 6.20am, which was handed over to Health Service officials. The vaccines arrived on a Go Air flight that landed at Dabolim airport.
“The first lot of COVID-19 vaccine for Goa has reached today early morning at 0622 hrs. The two boxes received were expeditiously cleared by Team Goa and handed over to Health Service officials,” Goa airport tweeted.
The Mumbai airport spokesperson said that Go Air’s first flight carrying 2,400 vials (24,000 doses) of Covishield vaccine took off at 5.20 am and reached Goa at 6.30 am.
However, Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant said that the batch had 23,500 doses (500 less than what was claimed by Mumbai airport).
“Goa has received 2350 vials with 10 doses each, totaling 23,500 shots of #COVID19 vaccine, today morning. The vaccines are being stored appropriately by the authorities, and would be distributed to all centres 24 hours prior to vaccination day,” he said.
He said the first dose will be given on January 16 to health workers and then to senior citizens.
Covishield and Covaxin, the two Covid-19 vaccines which have received Emergency Use Authorisation (EAU) have been tested on thousands of people and side-effects are negligible, NITI Aayog Member (Health) Dr VK Paul said.
Eleven crore doses of Covishield vaccine are being procured from Serum Institute of India at a cost of Rs 200 per dose, excluding taxes, the government has said. In addition, 55 lakh doses of Covaxin are also being procured for the vaccination drive.
