The Union government has placed Chandigarh at the seventh position among all States and UTs when it comes to the second-dose coverage of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“At 67%, Chandigarh’s second-dose coverage is seventh highest in the country, the Union ministry of health and family welfare has stated during the national immunisation day conference on Thursday,” said Dr Suman Singh, director, health services, Chandigarh.
Around 8.4 lakh people are to be immunised in Chandigarh. As on Friday, 9,30,465 (110%) people, including migrants, have taken their first shot while 5,75,017 (68%) are fully vaccinated.
The UT is performing much better than most states as the Centre had recently stated that only 38% of the country’s eligible beneficiaries had received both vaccine doses, while close to 79% have received at least one dose. With 100% coverage, Lakshadweep has topped the second-dose ranking.
Lakshadweep was also the first among all States and UTs to achieve 100% first-dose coverage. Chandigarh was second. Other than these two, six States and UTs have already jabbed the eligible population with the first dose.
63K people skip 2nd jab
Around 63,000 people, who have taken their first dose of Covid-19 vaccine from healthcare facilities in Chandigarh, have not turned up to take their second jab even after the completion of the recommended time gap. However, the number has come down from 75,526, as on October 28.
“The health department has already started the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination campaign and we are motivating people to end the hesitancy and take the second dose. As per the central government’s CoWIN app, these people have missed their second dose despite a reminder message, which is automatically sent to the beneficiary once they are eligible for the second dose. The UT health department is now telephonically contacting these people and is conducting a special drive to vaccinate them at the earliest,” said Dr Suman Singh.
{{/usCountry}}“The health department has already started the ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ door-to-door Covid-19 vaccination campaign and we are motivating people to end the hesitancy and take the second dose. As per the central government’s CoWIN app, these people have missed their second dose despite a reminder message, which is automatically sent to the beneficiary once they are eligible for the second dose. The UT health department is now telephonically contacting these people and is conducting a special drive to vaccinate them at the earliest,” said Dr Suman Singh.
{{/usCountry}}Dr Singh said that when the teams were contacting these people, many were untraceable through phone calls. Many mobile numbers were changed while many people ignored the calls, she said, adding that the department is now tracing the addresses of those people through their Aadhaar numbers.
According to medical experts, the first dose of vaccine helps in building antibodies, but without a booster dose, the antibodies are insufficient to fight the virus, especially with more deadly variants spreading fast. Even in the second wave of the pandemic, people who had just got their first dose were getting infected.