Gangtok: Sikkim on Wednesday received its first batch of 1,250 vials of COVID-19 vaccine, a health official said.
The vaccine has been stored in a walk-in cooler at the cold chain section in the STNM Hospital complex in Gangtok, he said.
The vaccination programme will begin on January 16 at the STNM Hospital, and the district hospital of West Sikkim at Gyalshing with the frontline health workers being the first recipients.
Meanwhile, the state reported eight new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, following which the tally crossed the 6,000-mark.
All the new cases were detected in the East Sikkim district, he said.
There are 311 active cases in the state at present, while 95 others have migrated out and 5,469 patients have recovered from the disease, the official said.
The death toll is at 129.
Sikkim has so far recorded 6,004 COVID-19 cases.
Altogether 377 samples were tested for COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of tests to 71,409. PTI
