GB Nagar restarts walk-in vaccination for 18+ today

Gautam Budh Nagar resumed walk-in registrations at its government vaccination centres from Monday after having suspended them for a week due to a paucity of vaccines

Gautam Budh Nagar resumed walk-in registrations at its government vaccination centres from Monday after having suspended them for a week due to a paucity of vaccines.

HT Image

As per officials, the district got around 39,000 more vaccines - 14,000 Covaxin and 25,000 Covishield doses - from the state on Sunday, enough to meet the district’s target of 10,000 vaccinations at government centres for three days. The private sector buys it directly from the government’s Co-WIN platform.

“On Monday we had a total of 57,000 vaccines. We hope to get more from the state health department soon,” said district chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri.

To manage crowds at the centres, the district has deployed police. “They can provide information regarding session capacity at each centre. This will help manage the crowd at the centres as only a limited number of walk-in doses will be administered,” said Dr Ohri.

Though it has been advised that beneficiaries should book their slots on the Co-WIN portal for convenience, those who are unable to do so can opt for walk-in vaccinations, he added.

District immunisation officer Dr Neeraj Tyagi said that the district inoculated 17,908 beneficiariesacross 113 government vaccination centres on Monday.

“Out of this, the 11,629 people in the 18-45 age group got their first dose and 593 got the second dose. Of the 45-60 group, 1,918 got their first dose and 2,003 got their second dose, and 722 under the 60+ age group got their first dose and 1,005 got their second dose,” said Dr Tyagi.

Last week, the district health department had to suspend the administration of Covishield on June 29 (Tuesday) and all vaccinations the next day as well. This was due to the state government reducing vaccine supply to districts in order to launch a mega vaccination drive from July 1 when it targeted to vaccinate 1 million people a day.

On July 1, vaccinations resumed at government centres but walk-in registration was suspended and only those who had booked slots on the Co-Win portal were given the vaccine.

As per the official data, the GB Nagar health department had aimed for 10,500 vaccinations on July 1 but only 6789 vaccinations took place for 18-45 age group. Similarly on July 2 and 3, 6,397 and 6,198 vaccinations took place for the same age group respectively.

The number of government Covid vaccination centres (CVC) carrying out vaccinations has now increased to 113 now from 36 last week.

Even the 39,000 vaccine doses provided to the district is for the next three days is in stark contrast to the district health department’s earlier plan to inoculate at least 40,000 people a day in July.

District Magistrate Suhas LY said, “Yes, vaccinations are currently not going as per the plan. But we are in a better position than last week when were only able to inoculate around 6,000-7,000 people at government CVCs.”

He added that the total number of vaccinations done in the district including private CVCs is around 20,000 which is a ‘good number’.

When asked whether near-to-home cluster vaccinations will start across GB Nagar, he added, “It all depends on the number of vaccines we will get from the state health department. We are hoping to get more vaccines this week”.

According to the Co-WIN portal, till Monday as many as 12,52,171 doses have been administered in the Gautam Budh Nagar district, of which 10,87,939 people have taken their first dose.