Crucial Shot for N-E States

Being the largest economy in the North East and the largest tea growing region in the world, Assam is a significant state as far as the Indian economy is concerned. The state that accounts for nearly 54 per cent of India’s total tea production and around 14 per cent of the world’s tea production, will vaccinate nearly 3 lakh people in the first phase of the nationwide drive that is expected to last eight weeks. According to Assam Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a total of 2.9 lakh people —1.9 lakh health workers and 1 lakh frontline workers—will be vaccinated across 65 centres located in 33 districts in the first phase. The state has already received over 2.2 lakh doses of Covid vaccine as on January 23. “A total of 6,500 people in the state will receive Covid vaccine per day,” Sarma had said on the first day of the pan-India vaccination drive that began on January 16.  

“It will take time for vaccination of the general public. Initially, we have targeted to vaccinate 2.90 lakh people including health workers and frontline workers in the first phase. In the next stage, we will identify people above 50 years of age. During this time, we will also be able to strengthen our cold chain system and our nurses will also have gained experienced in administering doses by then,” Sarma has said.

Trained Manpower 

The state health department has trained 8,651 nurses for the vaccination drive. Around 1,300 supervisors will monitor these nurses during the inoculation drive. “The first phase would be over by April. We have requested the Centre to give us additional vaccines so that officials on poll duty for the assembly election due in April are vaccinated,” said Sarma. As on January 22, Assam and Tripura vaccinated the most number of healthcare workers compared to the other North-eastern states. Reportedly, 10,676 beneficiaries had been vaccinated in Assam followed by 9,272 in Tripura as on 22 January. But the vaccination drive was not without its share of glitches. Only a little over 2,000 healthcare workers in Assam could be vaccinated on January 18, which was much below the daily target of 6,500, due to a technical snag in the servers of CoWin app. Then on the first day of the vaccination drive, around 1,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine were found in a partially frozen condition at the Silchar Medical College and Hospital (SMCH) in Assam’s Cachar district. According to state officials, there was a problem with the Ice- Lined Refrigerators (ILR) that are specially designed for storage of vaccines. The vaccines are meant to be stored in the ILR at a controlled temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius. If, for any reason, there is a change in temperature the ILR machine should send a text message to the mobile phone app which did not happen in this case. A probe has been ordered, officials said. As on January 23, Assam had reported a total of more than 2.15 lakh ‘confirmed cases’. While 2.10 lakh infected persons had recovered, the number f active cases stood at 3,525. 

Dry Run 

Before the actual pan-India vaccination drive began, a dry run was conducted across some key states including Assam to test their preparedness. In Assam, the dry run was carried out across all the 33 districts. Apart from the dry run, a three-day training programme was also conducted for 12,000 nurses. Assam, like many other states, saw an increase in Covid cases following the reverse migration of labourers last year. Like other states, the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) were the worst affected by the lockdown. In June 2020, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal announced that a sum of Rs 933 crore in assistance had been disbursed among 28,000 MSME units in Assam under the Rs 3,00,000-crore package announced for the sector by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Sarma in a written reply to the Assam assembly in end-December 2020 stated that the Assam government had spent Rs 1,032 crore towards the management of Covid-19. This included Rs 517 crore that was released to the districts for upgradation of the hospitals, maintenance of screening and quarantine centres, hotel accommodation and refreshments; Rs 172 crore for conducting Rapid Antigen Tests, RTPCR tests and outsourcing of testing facility; and another Rs 167 crore for purchasing life-saving drugs and essential medical equipment and towards transportation of the infected patients. The vaccination drive in Assam is crucial for the North East, as it can become a test-case for the rest of the six states in the region that are always away from the radar of common man and the central authorities.