Covid surge: Chandigarh sees 400% increase in daily vaccinations

Amid an uptick in Covid-19 infections and restrictions imposed on entry of partially vaccinated people in public places, the vaccination drive in Chandigarh has started picking up pace

Amid an uptick in Covid-19 infections and restrictions imposed on entry of partially vaccinated people in public places, the vaccination drive in Chandigarh has started picking up pace.

Residents lining up to get jabbed at the vaccination centre in Sukhna Lake , Chandigarh. As many as 9,126 people were vaccinated in the city on Sunday. (Keshav Singh/HT)

On an average, around 11,640 people were vaccinated daily in the past one week from December 27 to January 2. In the week ending on December 26, 2,301 people were getting inoculated.

In the past week, against the target of 8.4 lakh, the health department has administered the first dose to 9,95,025 (118%) people, which includes migrants, and both doses to 7,61,882 (90%). On Sunday, 9,126 people got jabbed in UT, of which 6,603 got their second dose.

UT health secretary Yashpal Garg, said, “Around 10 days ago, only 2,000 to 2,500 people were getting vaccinated in Chandigarh per day. Over 1 lakh people who had taken their first dose had not turned up to take their second jab, even after completion of the recommended vaccine time gap. However, after the UT administration announced the ban on partially vaccinated people from entering any public place in Chandigarh, people have started coming forward.”

“The overdue cases are also decreasing and if the daily vaccination average remains the same, UT will soon accomplish its target of fully vaccinating its eligible population”, Garg said, adding that the first dose of vaccine helps in building antibodies, but without a booster dose, the antibodies are insufficient to fight the virus, especially with variants like Omicron spreading fast.

“The vaccinated people, especially those who have completed their vaccination cycle, are not getting severe complications even after getting infected with the virus. The hospitalisation and fatality rate have drastically come down as vaccination is helping in controlling severity and transmission of the virus”, he said.