Ghaziabad aims to jab all beneficiaries with first vaccine dose by November 15

With Ghaziabad district lagging behind in vaccinating beneficiaries in different age groups, officials of the health department said they will use a host of measures to achieve their target of administering at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to all the eligible beneficiaries by November 15

With Ghaziabad district lagging behind in vaccinating beneficiaries in different age groups, officials of the health department said they will use a host of measures to achieve their target of administering at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to all the eligible beneficiaries by November 15.

Ghaziabad, India - October 27, 2021: People getting inoculated with Covid-19 vaccination at the District Hospital in Sanjay Nagar, Ghaziabad, India on Wednesday, October 27, 2021. (Photo by Sakib Ali /Hindustan Times)

According to official data, the district has a target of vaccinating 2,702,167 beneficiaries, of whom 2,296,012 people have received at least the first dose till November 13. The first dose coverage is about 84.97%.

The second dose coverage is about 43.08% with 1,164,119 beneficiaries jabbed with both the doses of Covid-19.

“The government has given us a target of covering all the eligible beneficiaries with the first dose by November, we are aiming to meet this target by November 15. If there are still some beneficiaries left out, we will adopt different measures to administer the first vaccine dose to them,” said Dr Bhavtosh Shankhdhar, chief medical officer of Ghaziabad.

Officials of the district health department said they are taking different measures to increase the vaccination coverage. “We will achieve this target in all probabilities. During the festive season, the turnout at the vaccination centres was low but it will pick up now. Our door-to-door survey is already in place, as part of which our teams are trying to find out those who have still not taken a single vaccine dose and encouraging them to take the jab,” said Dr GP Mathuria, nodal officer for Covid vaccination.

“We are also running vaccination drives in the evening at 17-18 locations everyday for the convenience of working professionals. Our daily vaccine allocation has also increased from 23,000 to 33,000. Hence, we are hoping to achieve the first dose target in the next couple of days,” said Dr Mathuria.

Data from the health department shows it has completed administering the first vaccine dose to all the beneficiaries identified under the ‘healthcare workers’ and ‘frontline workers’ categories.

The first dose coverage for the 18-45 years age group is about 85.48% while it is 92.14% for the 45+ age group category.

Experts said that now is the right time to get both the vaccine doses.

“Since the Covid cases are very less and have considerably declined, it is vital that beneficiaries get vaccinated at the earliest,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, former president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad chapter).

According to official figures, till Saturday morning (November 13), the overall tally of Covid-19 cases in the district stood at 55,676, of which three are active cases. The death toll has stood at 461 ever since the last fatality was reported on June 18 this year.