As the vaccination process to start from January 16, the Centre asks states to follow do's and don'ts

The vaccination process will start from January 16 in India. It will cover 3 lakh healthcare workers at 3,006 vaccination sites in various states in the country.

The government has cleared two vaccines – Covishield developed by the Serum Institute of India and Covaxine developed by the Bharat Biotech in collaboration with ICMR.

The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has made it clear that healthcare workers who will be vaccinated will not be given the option to choose which vaccine they want to take.

The Centre has asked all the states to follow some do’s and don’ts while vaccinating healthcare providers.

Only those individuals who are above 18 years of age will be vaccinated. Similarly, pregnant women or those who are feeding their milk to babies will not be administered the vaccine.

The Centre has also asked the vaccinators not to interchange the vaccine.

“If a person has been administered the first dose of Covishield, he will not be given Covaxine as the second dose. He has to be administered the Covishield only after 28 days. Similar will be the case with Covaxine as well,” a senior doctor from a government hospital said.

In another vital instruction, the Centre has asked the state to deal with those healthcare workers who contracted the virus.

Such persons will be vaccinated four to eight weeks after their recovery from Covid-19. People who have undergone plasma therapy as a part of treatment for Covid-19 will have to wait to get the vaccine.

Healthcare workers who are not well or in hospitals due to any other disease will also have to wait to get the vaccine dose.