Covid vaccination coverage reaches 91%

The district recorded the highest turnout for Covid-19 vaccination on Friday, with almost 91% coverage of the targeted healthcare workers. Focusing on private healthcare workers, who make up for the majority of the district’s total workforce, the health department inoculated at least 3,278 out of 3,600 beneficiaries at the vaccination sites set up in various private hospitals of the city. On Thursday, when both private and government healthcare workers received the vaccine, the turnout was 79%.

At 32 sites, at least 3,138 took the Covishield jab as against the set target of 3,200, whereas the turnout for Covaxin for the fourth time remained slow. Only 140 took the Covaxin jab out of the 400 targeted for the day, according to the district health department data. Health workers from government set up were not inoculated on Friday. The next session for them will be held on Saturday.

Dr MP Singh, district immunisation officer, said, “The footfall remained high throughout the day due to walk in. For Saturday, the department has planned to cover the maximum workforce by having more than 53 vaccination sites.”

Although the numbers stood high, some doctors from small clinics and nursing homes found their names missing from the list. A member of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said that due to miscommunication, a couple of doctors who reached the vaccination site based on the beneficiary list could not take the shot as they were asked to show the text message for vaccination.

Dr Ajay Gupta, vice president, Indian Medical Association, Gurugram chapter, said, “On Thursday, IMA received a list of doctors and health staff who had to be given vaccine at different sites, primarily private hospitals. It was the same list of workforce, which was registered before the vaccine was launched. A couple of doctors faced challenges like their names were missing from the list at the site, while in some places vaccination officers said they can give the jab only if the doctor or staff could show the text message regarding date and location of vaccination.”

He said that the issue can be resolved once they receive the extended list of beneficiaries who will be covered by January 25.