Jaipur, Jan 15 (PTI) Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma here on Friday said coronavirus vaccine has reached all 33 districts of the state where it will be administered to over six lakh beneficiaries at 161 centres from Saturday.

Sawai Man Singh (SMS) Medical College Principal Sudhir Bhandari will be the first person in Rajasthan to be administered Covishield on Saturday, a Health Department official said.

“I have no inhibition in taking the vaccine as it is scientific and like any other flu shot. I am very comfortable,” Bhandari said.

Around 5.63 lakh vaccine doses, including 4.43 lakh of Covishield and 20,000 of Covaxin, were received at the state vaccine store in Jaipur besides 1.05 lakh doses at Udaipur.

Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot will be launching the drive from his residence on Saturday.

Sharma said the second dose of 0.5 ml will be given to the beneficiaries after 28 days of the first dose.

He said to ensure that other services are not hit, the drive will be carried out only on four days a week. The vaccine will not be administered on Thursday, Sunday and state holidays, he said.

The minister said they have set up three state-level, seven division-level and 34 district-level vaccine stores. At the same time, 2,444 cold chain points are also functional at community and primary health centres, he said, adding that a vaccine van has also been provided in each district.

Sharma said data of over six lakh beneficiaries from the state was uploaded on the CoWin software by January 14.

The beneficiaries include health workers.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)