Bihar gets 15 lakh doses of needle-free Covid vaccine

PATNA: Those who are afraid of needle and are yet to take Covid-19 vaccine have nothing to fear about it now. Bihar has received 15 lakh doses of needleless vaccine made by

Zydus Cadila

, which have been sent to Jamui, Bhagalpur and Madhubani, apart from the three centres in

Patna

.

However, sources said provision to register for these vaccines on CoWIN portal may take some time. This is a three-dose plasmid DNA vaccine and it is injected intradermally or in the skin with painless pharmajet needle-free system.

Zydus

started the supply of this vaccine to the Centre on Wednesday and Bihar got its stock on Friday. As of now, only the beneficiaries above 18 years can be administered this vaccine. An official said since almost 100% of the beneficiaries above 18 years have taken either the first dose of Covishiled or Covaxin in the state, those who have recently added in this age group can take the needle-free vaccine. “For example, those who have turned 18 this year,” an official said.

Patna civil surgeon Dr

Vibha Kumari Singh

said after the first dose, the second has to be taken after 28 days and third one after 56 days. Dr Singh further said that each time 0.1ml of the vaccine is administered on both the arms. That mean in all the three doses, vaccine will be given in both the arms. She said healthcare workers have been trained in this regard.

As per the data available on CoWIN portal, over 11.37 crore Covid vaccine doses were administered in Bihar till Friday evening. That included over 1.53 crore Covaxin and over 9.84 crore doss of Covishield.