Assam begins its Covid-19 vaccination drive along with other states in the country on Saturday morning.

Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that in Assam the initial doses of Covid-19 vaccine will be given to twelve senior doctors of the state.

The doctors from the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) are–Dr UC Sarma, Dr Dhrubojyoti Bora, Dr Illias Ali, Dr Bibhash Chandra Goswami, Dr Subhash Khanna, Dr Harsha Bhattacharjee, Dr Rathindra Bhuyan, Dr Anup Barman, Dr Achyut Baishya, Dr Abhijit Sarma, Dr Brajen Lahkar and Dr Manoj Choudhury.

In the first phase around 1.9 lakh COVID warriors will be covered which will be followed by one lakh front line workers in the second stage, he said.

Out of 3, 80,000 required doses, the Assam government have received 2, 21,500 doses for the first phase, of which 210,500 are Covishield vaccine and the remaining 20,000 are Covaxin.

For the administration of Covaxin, written consent will be required on the part of the beneficiary.

People with the age of 50 years will receive the vaccination in the subsequent stage, said Minister Sarma. In the later stage, people with co-morbidity (below 50 years of age) will be considered for vaccination.

Pregnant women or children below 18 years of age will be debarred from receiving the vaccination.

65 vaccination sites which includes seven medical colleges and 24 district hospitals, has been selected in all the 33 districts in the state, informed Sarma.

100 persons will be vaccinated in a day on each site.

Training to 8,651 vaccinators has been given who will be supervised by 1,300 trained personnel.