24x7 vaccination drive against Covid-19 gets muted response in Gurugram

The round-the-clock Covid-19 vaccination drive that started on Monday in six hospitals in the city has witnessed a muted response

The round-the-clock Covid-19 vaccination drive that started on Monday in six hospitals in the city has witnessed a muted response. Only 24 people got vaccinated on Monday night, health department officials said, adding that they could rethink about the decision.

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However, the officials said that they will keep working on it for at least one week before taking a final call. The department has designated one government and five private hospitals for night vaccination.

According to the officials, only three people got vaccinated at the designated private hospitals while remaining 21 beneficiaries got vaccinated at the government hospital in sector 10. The five private hospitals designated for night vaccination are Artemis, Max Hospital, Medanta, Paras Hospital and Fortis, they said.

Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said that the purpose of the round-the-clock vaccination drive is to ensure that maximum people can take advantage of extended time, but the response on the first day was below expectation. “We will try and reach out to the public in the next one week and also ask the private hospitals to focus on outreach. If the results are not favourable, then we will have to rethink this strategy as large resources are deployed on the night shift,” he said.

Yadav, however, expressed satisfaction over the mega vaccination drive, which was held on Monday as the health department managed to vaccinate over 12,000 people in the city. “All stakeholders, including the private sector, will be motivated to expand the outreach in coming days and cover maximum beneficiaries,” he said.

A senior doctor at a private hospital said that more time should be given to the round-the-clock initiative as slowly people will come forward and take advantage of this facility. “The 24x7 drive will help those people who are not able to access it during the day. The beneficiaries can also avoid the day crowd. We want to request people to avail this unique opportunity to boost their immunity against this contagious virus and help break the chain of infection,” he said, wishing anonymity.

Meanwhile, the additional chief secretary (health), Rajeev Arora, said that given the response to the vaccination outreach, which led to the inoculation of about 150,000 beneficiaries on Monday across the state, the department has decided to observe every Monday as ‘mega vaccination day’.

“The department has ensured that the vaccination centres are in close proximity to people’s residences even in the rural areas, and for which the number of vaccination centres has also been enhanced,” said Arora.

As per details shared by the health department, on Tuesday, 3,452 beneficiaries over 60 years and 1,052 between the age of 45 and 59 years with comorbidity were vaccinated, besides 504 health-care workers and 933 front-line workers were also vaccinated in 89 sessions.