Covid-19: Over 104,000 doses of vaccine administered in a day

At least 104,000 doses of the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine were administered on Monday in the district, which was the highest vaccination coverage in a day, as the health department targeted domestic helps, drivers, security staff, workers and daily wage labourers as part of the statewide mega vaccination drive.

At least 104,000 doses of the Covishield Covid-19 vaccine were administered on Monday in the district, which was the highest vaccination coverage in a day, as the health department targeted domestic helps, drivers, security staff, workers and daily wage labourers as part of the statewide mega vaccination drive.

As many as 209 session sites were run on Monday, as part of a statewide mega vaccination drive. (Parveen Kumar/HT Photo)

The number of jabs given on Monday was more than three times the target of 30,000 for the state, said health department officials. The overall vaccination tally in the district shot up to 1,034,988, which is the highest in the state. On Monday, over 627,000 vaccine jabs were given in the state.

“It is a major achievement by the health team to conduct vaccination on a massive scale. We have utilised all the doses available with the health department. The target is to vaccinate the maximum number of people before the third wave of coronavirus infections,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer.

In Gurugram, vaccination was conducted at 209 sites, including five drive-through facilities and four special camps for daily wage labourers. According to the district health department data, over 87,555 vaccine shots were given at 190 government session sites, with 49,247 people in urban areas and 38,308 in rural areas covered. As many as 16,623 doses were administered at 19 session sites run by private hospitals.

At least 93, 297 people who took the jabs were in the 18-45 age bracket, while 10, 314 were older than 45 years. Also, 117 healthcare workers and 450 front-line workers were inoculated.

Officials said that 3,020 doses were administered at the drive-through facilities at Woolmark in Sector 65, AIPL Joy Street in Sector 66, Airia Mall in Sector 68, M3M Urbana in Sector 67 and South Point Carnival on Golf Course Road. Over 644 people took their jabs at the wholesale vegetable and grains market at Khandsa, while 274 auto drivers and 398 daily wage labourers took their first vaccine shot on the day.

Beneficiaries started reaching government health centres from 4am. “Our employers directed us to get vaccinated at the earliest, otherwise, they won’t allow us to work,” said Preeti, who lives in the slum behind Tau Devi Lal Botanical Garden and works as a domestic helper. She reached the Waziarabad health centre with her neighbours around 4am to get tokens for vaccination.

Karobi, who works as a domestic help in Sushant Lok, said she reached the Chanderlok health centre at 8am to get vaccinated and took the day off from work. “It is not possible to take an off every day and stand in a vaccination queue. The employer asked us to get vaccinated before June 25. Otherwise they won’t allow us to resume work. Our work has already been affected due to lockdown,” said Karobi.

Many beneficiaries said that despite several attempts to get vaccinated, they could not get the vaccine shot before Monday.

Raju Singh, of West Bengal, who works as a driver, said, “For the last four to five days, I have been visiting health centres but by the time we reached, all tokens were distributed.”

Dr MP Singh, the district immunisation officer, said, “No one can be left behind in the Covid-19 vaccination coverage. The target was to reach out to them in large numbers. The message was circulated through health teams.”