The first consignment of 69,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine, Covishield, which arrived in Siliguri late last night for five north Bengal districts, was dispatched to the cold chain points today. The vaccines arrived in cold boxes, which were carried in an insulated truck from Kolkata.

The consignment was stored at North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH), the central storage facility for the vaccines in Darjeeling district, last night and transported to 28 other cold chain points in Darjeeling and other districts – Kalimpong, Jalpaiguri, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar in insulated vans from there.

It has been decided today that the vaccination drive will be conducted at five health facilities in Darjeeling district ~ NBMCH, Siliguri District Hospital, Kharibari Rural Hospital in the Plains and Darjeeling District Hospital and Kurseong sub-divisional Hospital in the Hills. Earlier the number of the vaccination centres was fixed as seven in the district. According to the guideline, 100 people will be vaccinated at each site.

Around 140 cold chain points have been readied in all north Bengal for storing the doses. “The vaccines have been received and stored between two degrees Celsius and eight degrees Celsius,” said Darjeeling district chief medical officer Dr Pralay Acharya.

The consignment containing 69,000 doses for the first phase of vaccination arrived at around 12 a.m. The sources at the NBMCH said that Darjeeling received 18,000 doses, Kalimpong district received 3,500 doses, Jalpaiguri district got 16,500 doses, Alipurduar district got 12,500 doses while Cooch Behar district received 18,500 doses.

Darjeeling MP Raju Bista, said: “A total of 1828 vaccinators will be working to ensure that all our frontline workers are vaccinated in this phase of the drive. In this phase 1,28,000 doses of vaccine has been allocated for north Bengal. To ensure proper compliance, the Union Health Ministry will be monitoring the webcast of vaccination drive that is set to start.”

Meanwhile, GTA chairman Anit Thapa has decided to be the first one to take the vaccine, along with some GTA officials, in Darjeeling.

The GTA chairman Anit Thapa in a press release said, “There are a lot of rumours circulating regarding the Covid vaccine with people also being scared to take it so to mitigate their fear, I will be the first one to take the vaccine from Kalimpong district hospital.” The Darjeeling health department has enlisted 16,000 health workers to be given the vaccine on 16 January. Health department officials also said that to facilitate health workers receive the vaccine phase wise, centres will also be set up at BPHC levels.