Small vaccine sessions continue, only 372 get Covid jabs

Continuing with the small session sizes for vaccination, the district health department on Friday gave Covid vaccine jabs to 372 health care workers

Continuing with the small session sizes for vaccination, the district health department on Friday gave Covid vaccine jabs to 372 health care workers.

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Out of the 850 scheduled to get the shots for the day, only 43% tuned up for inoculation making it the lowest ever footfall since the vaccination drive started from January 16.

On Friday, vaccination took place at 28 session sites, of which Covishield was administered at 24 sites and Covaxin at four sites. The district health department had decided to reduce the number of session sites after having covered almost 59% of the registered health care workers. Over 37,000 health care workers from public and private hospitals, nursing homes and clinics are registered on Co-WIN platform as vaccine beneficiaries. Of them, at least 21,791 had been given the Covid-19 vaccine shots by Friday.

Throughout Friday, inoculation for Covaxin remained low, with only 17 health care workers getting the jab from the Bharat biotech manufactured vaccine, against a target of 100. For Covishield, out of 750 people at least 355 reached the vaccination sites.Officials said that on Saturday too, the session size will continue to remain small as teams have been deployed to hold pulse polio drive from January 31 to February 2.

Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, said, “Covid-19 vaccination drive will be on halt till the polio drive gets over. The strategy for Covid-19 vaccine post February 2 is yet to be prepared. It is likely that the session size for vaccination will remain small as the footfall has been declining. Out of 37,000 health care workers, we have already inoculated at least 21,791 workers, which is over 59% of the overall target.”

According to Yadav, session sites can be expanded if the inoculation of the other front line workers — like staff from police department, Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and revenue department — are included. According to senior officials in the state health department, the process of inoculation of front line workers is likely to commence from February.

Dr Ashok Singla, chief medical officer, MCG, said, “A list of 7,000 employees, which includes sanitation workers and firemen, have been prepared for Covid-19 vaccination. The staff had no trouble is getting themselves registered for vaccination, but the actual response will only be seen once their vaccination starts.”

Likewise, the revenue department has prepared a list of 400 employees, while the police force estimates that almost 14,000 of its personnel, including other staff members, will be covered.