GB Nagar administration enlists 4.25 lakh beneficiaries for phase-3 vaccination

On the basis of latest electoral roll, the Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad district administrations have prepared a list of beneficiaries for the third phase of Covid-19 vaccinations expected to begin in March

On the basis of latest electoral roll, the Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad district administrations have prepared a list of beneficiaries for the third phase of Covid-19 vaccinations expected to begin in March.

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The third phase will administer the first dose for people over 50 years or those suffering from comorbidities.

While Gautam Budh Nagar has identified over 424,500 such people, while Ghaziabad said it had a list of over 616,000 people.

GB Nagar chief medical officer (CMO), Dr Deepak Ohri, said that the list was made in compliance of the instructions from the state government.

“Everyone who has completed 50 years have been include in the list of beneficiaries enlisted for the third phase, irrespective of any co-morbidity. For accuracy, we decided to tally it with the latest electoral roll in the district. As soon as the dates of vaccination for these beneficiaries will be announced by the government, the district health officials will begin the process of registration, in which the addresses and mobile numbers of the beneficiaries will be updated,” he said.

“To increase the turnout during inoculation, we have made a proposal to the state government, to increase the sessions to thrice in a week from the existing twice in a week,” he said. The phase will have 15 rounds.

Meanwhile, aimed to inoculate the remaining frontline workers, the mop-up round for second phase of vaccination began on Monday.

However, it could not yield better results than previous sessions as only 2,405 of remaining 8,062 frontline workers could be inoculated, which was 29% of the remaining frontline workers.

GB Nagar district vaccination officer, Dr Neeraj Tyagi, said that taking serious notes of the instructions given by the state health department to increase the vaccination turnout, the district vaccination department had made 54 booths at 26 different locations, for this mop-up round.

“All our efforts couldn’t pull up the beneficiaries as 5,637 out of overall 18,717 frontline workers finally missed the inoculation in the second round. These left out beneficiaries could not get the jabs in any of the four sessions of second phase of vaccination,” he said.

He further said that after the mop-up round, the final figures of vaccination in the first phase, have gone to 69.77%.

“As many as 13,060 health workers could be inoculated in all three sessions and the mop-up round. Now, the failure of potential beneficiaries to get vaccinated in the mop up round will automatically push them to the age-appropriate vaccination category, which will perhaps take place after the last round of vaccination,” he said.

When asked about the reasons behind the lukewarm response to the mop-up drive, Tyagi said that a lack of confidence in the vaccine among the health workers appears to be the main reason.

“While many of them remained sceptical about the efficacy of the vaccine, others claimed that they do not need it as their bodies have developed immunity against the virus,” he said.

He said that the health department officials had informed the beneficiaries, two days ahead of their stipulated date of vaccination.

“We had also informed the departments concerned of the beneficiaries about their presence or absence during the vaccination. To increase vaccine confidence, it is essential to improve the public’s understanding of how they can help control the spread of Covid-19 in their families and their communities,” Tyagi said.