Gautam Budh Nagar to step up vaccine coverage in 12-15 age group from today

Health department officials said that awareness camps are also being organised and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are being roped to increase vaccination among children, especially in the rural pockets

After reporting over 100 Covid-19 cases on a daily basis for the past five consecutive days, Gautam Budh Nagar district saw a marginal decline and added 98 fresh cases on Sunday.

A woman receives a booster shot at a hospital in Noida on Sunday. (Sunil Ghosh/ HT)

However, with 621 active cases as on Sunday, the district is still contributing the maximum cases in Uttar Pradesh.

“We are monitoring all Covid-19 cases and most new cases have been reported through contact-tracing. We are also reporting more cases because people in Noida are aware and have easy access to more private laboratories,” said Dr Sunil Sharma, chief medical officer, Gautam Budh Nagar district.

Meanwhile, the health department is also increasing the number of vaccination camps for children from Monday. At least 50 centres will give Corbevax doses to children in the 12-15 age group. There will also be around 25 special camps at schools across the district, said sources.

“We will have 20-25 special camps in schools every Monday-Tuesday and Thursday-Friday. We will have fewer centres on Wednesdays since we also have routine immunisation programmes. The aim is to get maximum children vaccinated at the earliest and that is why camps are being increased from Monday,” said Dr Sunil Dohare, district immunisation officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.

Health department officials said that awareness camps are also being organised and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are being roped to increase vaccination among children, especially in the rural pockets. While children in urban areas are getting vaccinated at a better pace, there is a lot of ground to cover in rural areas, officials said. As of now, 58% of the estimated population in the 12-15 age group has been vaccinated with the first dose, while 5% have also taken the second dose.

According to the district health department, 86% of the estimated population in the 15-18 age group has taken the first dose, while 53% has taken both the doses. Among the adult population, the district has already achieved 133% vaccination for the first dose and 104% for both the doses. Overall, 4,069,000 doses have been administered across Gautam Budh Nagar district. It includes 2,261,000 first dose, 1,725,000 second dose and 83,000 precautionary shots.