GB Nagar: 2000 health care workers’ names missed in vaccination drive

Around 2,000 health care workers (HCWs) from Gautam Budh Nagar did not find their names on the beneficiary list for the Covid-19 vaccination phase 1 drive from January 16 to February 5

Around 2,000 health care workers (HCWs) from Gautam Budh Nagar did not find their names on the beneficiary list for the Covid-19 vaccination phase 1 drive from January 16 to February 5.

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The district administration has now sent their names for an unscheduled special inoculation drive.

District magistrate Suhas L Y said that the health department and the Noida chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) received reports that several HCWs in private hospitals and other medical institutions did not figure in the phase 1 list. “We have sent a list of names of these people to the government to be included on the Co-WIN portal. Once they are reflected on the portal, we’ll have a special inoculation drive for them,” he said.

He said the health department had been asked to find out how the lapse happened.

Of the 24,453 HCWs listed for vaccination, 16,863 turned up to get their shot.

Dr NK Gupta, the president of IMA-Noida, said that doctors, nurses, paramedics, technical staff and sanitary workers, were among those who did not get a chance to be vaccinated. “Many private hospitals submitted their data late or did not submit it in the right format due to a communication gap. We got at least 25 calls a day on this issue. The private hospitals approached us when names of some of their employees did not figure among the beneficiaries,” he said.

GB Nagar chief medical officer Dr Deepak Ohri said, “The state government had restricted editing on the portal from the first day of the vaccination drive. Once the government approves the list we sent, we will get access to the Co-WIN portal and will be able to upload the names.”

The central government had developed Co-WIN to track beneficiaries and alert them of their vaccination dates and centres. While phase 1 was devoted to HCWs, phase 2 included frontline workers such as police, paramilitary and district officials too, while phase 3 will have people over 50 and/or those with comorbidities.