Chandigarh is now in the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s list of states and UTs which have inoculated 100% of its eligible population (18+age group) with the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, after the Centre revised the UT’s target population.
Now, the Union ministry has finalised Chandigarh’s eligible population at 8,43,000. Earlier, the central government had fixed Chandigarh’s target at 15,75,709 people.
However, the UT administration had said the city’s eligible population was 7,29,822, according to the 2011 Census and considering the decadal growth of 17.2%. Also, the administration had on August 14 claimed that it had jabbed 100% of its eligible population after administering the vaccine to 7,32,368 people.
The ministry had on September 13 released a list of six states and UTs with 100% first dose coverage, but had not included Chandigarh. Those included in the list were Himachal Pradesh, Goa, Daman and Diu, Sikkim, Ladakh and Lakshadweep. The UT administration had then raised the issue of “mismatched population targets” with the Centre several times in the last few weeks.
Dr MK Aggarwal, additional commissioner (UIP), of Union health ministry, on Wednesday wrote a letter to the UT administration which stated, “As per recommendations of the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, the population target of Chandigarh has been revised in various age groups. The revised population target of 18 years and above category is 8,43,000, of which 5,84,000 people are in the 18-44 years group, 1,81,000 in 45-59 years and 78,000 people are 60 years and above.”
{{/usCountry}}Dr MK Aggarwal, additional commissioner (UIP), of Union health ministry, on Wednesday wrote a letter to the UT administration which stated, “As per recommendations of the office of the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, the population target of Chandigarh has been revised in various age groups. The revised population target of 18 years and above category is 8,43,000, of which 5,84,000 people are in the 18-44 years group, 1,81,000 in 45-59 years and 78,000 people are 60 years and above.”
{{/usCountry}}So far, 8,61,359 people, including migrants, have taken their first shot in Chandigarh, while 3,74,787 (45%) were fully vaccinated. In the last seven days, around 8,015 people were vaccinated in Chandigarh daily on an average.
UT adviser Dharam Pal said, “Even with the revised data of targeted population, UT Chandigarh is among the states or UTs which have administered at least one vaccine dose to 100% of the targeted population I want to congratulate all doctors, nurses and healthcare workers for their contribution.”