E-Paper
Punjab crosses 1 crore dose mark, half of target population vaccinated
Punjab has crossed the milestone of administering 1 crore anti-coronavirus doses
Punjab has crossed the milestone of administering 1 crore anti-coronavirus doses. With this, around 50% of the target population in the state has been vaccinated at least with the first dose.
State Covid-19 nodal officer Dr Rajesh Bhaskar said, “We crossed the 1 crore mark on Monday. As per the state’s own assessment, we have nearly 2.4 crore beneficiaries aged above 18 who have to be vaccinated as per the present criteria.”
However, the state continued to perform poorly on ensuring speedy and timely second dose for the beneficiaries as the data shows that only 25 lakh people have been vaccinated with both the doses.
“Ideally, the figure of fully vaccinated people should have been at least 60 lakh by now. We are going slow on the second dose as we are focusing too much on the first jab which is exhausting most of the supply being received from Centre,” a senior official admitted.
Following the Centre’s recent letter to the Punjab government, it was decided to consume 80% of the fresh supply for the second jab. But the district health authorities continued to focus more on the first dose.
“Of the total first dose beneficiaries, 97 lakh were registered through the Union health ministry’s CoWIN app whereas the rests were registered on the state’s COVA application. And of the total administered doses, 88 lakh are of Covishield while 12.4 lakh are of Covaxin,” the nodal officer said.
Nearly 14,000 doses of Sputnik-V have also been given in the state, he added.
Punjab will get 22 lakh vaccine doses this month, according to an official communiqué received from the Centre. Last month, the state had got 21 lakh doses.
“This month, we plan to use at least 16 lakh jabs for the second dose,” an official said.
Among the districts, Ludhiana administered maximum 14.50 lakh doses followed by Jalandhar (9.66 lakh), Hoshiarpur (8.88 lakh), MOhali (7.79 lakh), and Amritsar (7.35 lakh).
Mansa, Barnala, Faridkot, Fatehgarh Sahib, Fazilka districts are lagging behind in the vaccination drive. Also, nearly 55% of the vaccinated population is male and 45% female.
