Covid vaccinations: 80% coverage marks upturn in coverage of front-line workers

Over 80% of 7,500 front-line workers from various government departments turned up for the Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday, according to the district health department

Over 80% of 7,500 front-line workers from various government departments turned up for the Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday, according to the district health department.

HT Image

The turnout spiked massively after the drive reported a poor footfall of 54% last week. Senior officials of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG), revenue and other departments took the vaccine jabs on Monday to assuage apprehensions among their staff.

The vaccination drive day was held across the state to cover nearly 35,000 front-line workers. In Gurugram, the health department had set a target of 8,000 people, including 500 healthcare workers, at 61 session sites.

Of the 7,500 front-line workers, at least 6,025 were from the revenue department, MCG, panchayati raj institutions, National Security Guard (NSG), Border Security Force (BSF), Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Indian Reserve Battalion (IRB) and the Gurugram police.

About 1,277 police personnel of the 2,000 targeted took the vaccine shots on the day. Deepak Saharan, a deputy commissioner of police, took the vaccine shot to motivate the station house officers.

Rajeev Arora, the additional chief secretary, health and home department, also visited the vaccination sites at sectors 51 and 45. “To make the drive successful, I have personally spoken to DGPs, SPs, MCG commissioner, among others, to encourage their staff. It has been decided that every week, a large-scale vaccination drive will be conducted to cover maximum front-line workers,” said Arora.

The footfall of the revenue department officials also increased on Monday. At least 85 of the 100 who were listed turned up for the vaccination. Earlier, not more than 15 people from the revenue department had turned up for vaccination so far.

Also, the inoculation of employees from panchayats in Sohna, Pataudi and Farrukhnagar blocks started. Almost 42% of the 300 targeted were covered at the 10 session sites.

“Each of the department heads had been personally approached by us to motivate the front-line workers for vaccination. Of the 29,000 front-line workers vaccinated across the state, Gurugram’s contribution has been the highest,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

Under the drive, almost 3,600 personnel of various security forces, under the union ministry of home affairs, were also targeted and 3,140 were vaccinated.

According to Dr MP Singh, the district immunisation officer, the staff of NSG and CRPF were given Covaxin vaccine. “Roughly, 2,060 NSG staff and 380 from CRPF got inoculated with Covaxin, while at the remaining sites across the district, vaccine beneficiaries received Covishield shot,” said Singh.

He said, “More session sites will be set up for the security forces in the next week. The Gurugram jail will also be covered, where almost 260 employees have to take the shot.”