GB Nagar admin to dedicate three days a week for second dose of Covid vaccines

To increase the number of individuals fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Gautam Budh Nagar will dedicate three days a week for administering the second dose of Covishield and Covaxin, and reserve five booths exclusively administering the second doses on all days from Tuesday

To increase the number of individuals fully vaccinated against Covid-19, Gautam Budh Nagar will dedicate three days a week for administering the second dose of Covishield and Covaxin, and reserve five booths exclusively administering the second doses on all days from Tuesday.

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On these exclusive days, which are yet to be decided, and at the five exclusive booths — primary health centres in Dadri, Jewar, Dankaur and Sector 22, and Mihirbhoj Inter College in Dadri — all adults would be allowed to walk-in for the jabs, apart from bookings through Co-Win, said officials.

The district has so far administered 1.9 million doses, of which only 426,439 are second doses, according to Co-WIN on Tuesday till 8pm. On Tuesday, the district administered 13,960 doses. It was only from May 1 that the vaccination coverage was expanded to cover all adults. Covshield has a waiting period of a 12 to 16 weeks for the second shot, while Covaxin’s wait is a month.

Most people have been vaccinated with Covishield due to more supply of the vaccine over the last few months, so the number of people scheduled to get their second dose is likely to increase in the coming days and months.

GB Nagar district magistrate Suhas LY said, “We aim to cover 2,000 people a day in all these five exclusive booths. The low coverage of the second dose has meant that we need to focus more on it. We’ll soon decide the days on which only second doses will be administered.”

District immunisation officer Dr Neeraj Tyagi said that as many as 9,758 doses of vaccines were administered in 32 government inoculation booths on Tuesday. “Out of it, 5,224 persons received their first dose, while the remaining 4,534 beneficiaries took their second jab,” he said.