The Ambala health department is all set to begin “Har Ghar Dastak” (door-to-door) vaccination drive from Monday, targeting more than 50,000 people who have failed to turn up for their second dose even after the expiry of the due date, deputy commissioner Vikram said on Sunday.
As per the health department figures, 31,875 residents had not received the second dose of Covishield till last Wednesday, while 16,510 skipped the second Covaxin jab. The enthusiasm among people to get vaccinated has dropped due to the drop in new cases, said an official.
The Union health ministry has prescribed a gap of 12 weeks between the first and second dose for Covishield and four weeks for Covaxin. Experts say both doses are needed to prevent the infection from getting severe.
Dr Sunidhi Karol, nodal officer for vaccination in Ambala, said the total eligible population of the district is 8,50,360. As per the centralised Cowin portal, 8,74,005 (103%) have been inoculated with a single dose and 5,80,696 (68%) are fully vaccinated as on Sunday evening.
“To alert those who failed to appear for their second dose, our department is making efforts through a call reminder. Even if they don’t turn up after calls, we will organise camps at village or colony level and visit such beneficiaries starting Monday,” said civil surgeon Dr Kuldeep Singh.
{{/usCountry}}“To alert those who failed to appear for their second dose, our department is making efforts through a call reminder. Even if they don’t turn up after calls, we will organise camps at village or colony level and visit such beneficiaries starting Monday,” said civil surgeon Dr Kuldeep Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Karol said that at least 135 such camps will be organised at rural and peri-urban areas and 13 at urban locations.
Zero active case in district
Meanwhile, almost 19 months after Ambala reported its first case of coronavirus infection in March last year, it has zero active case for the past five days.
The last active case, a resident of Shahazadpur block, was discharged from hospital after recovering from the infection on Wednesday.
Officials said that despite regular sampling, there has been no new case for the last two weeks. The last case had surfaced on November 25.
In a statement, the civil surgeon said, so far, 6,63,780 samples have been taken including RT-PCR and RAT, out of which 30,150 patients tested positive for the virus and 509 died due to the virus. Accordingly, the recovery rate stood at 98.31% and the death rate at 1.66%.