Ghaziabad fails to achieve March vaccination target, coverage at 83%

Ghaziabad: The district missed the Covid-19 vaccination target for March by more than 17% as the month ended on Wednesday

Ghaziabad: The district missed the Covid-19 vaccination target for March by more than 17% as the month ended on Wednesday. The district could achieve vaccination of about 77,475 beneficiaries till March 31 with a coverage of about 82.87%, officials said.

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Ghaziabad had got a March target of inoculating 93,480 beneficiaries under the category of senior citizens and people above 45 years having comorbid conditions.

“We missed the target, but we have vaccinated a high number of beneficiaries at coverage of about 83%. The next round of vaccination is starting April 1 and we will try to achieve the target given by the state government. We have about 93 hospitals, including 36 private hospitals, which will take up vaccination from April 1,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, district magistrate.

For the month of April, Ghaziabad has received a rather high target of vaccinating 216,000 beneficiaries, while neighbouring Gautam Budh Nagar is to cover 162,000 beneficiaries.

The target for the month of April means that authorities in Ghaziabad will have to inoculate about 7,200 people per day on an average.

Experts said that the Ghaziabad authorities managed to vaccinate an average of about 2,500 beneficiaries in March as against 3015 required per day. “If they wish to achieve vaccination target for April, they will have to take up aggressive vaccination and on a campaign mode. The upcoming panchayat elections and rise in temperature will also pose hindrance. We have also written to the authorities to allow private health centres and clinics to take up vaccination so that more population is covered before any significant rise in Covid-19 cases,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, president, Indian Medical Association -- Ghaziabad.

Unlike the overall target given for the month of March, the state government this time has defined targets to be met on “major days” – Monday, Thursday and Friday – and also for “minor days” – Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday – as well as the weekly target assigned to each district.

“On ‘major days’ when all our primary health centres (PHCs) will be working for vaccination, we will have a total of 93 health-care centres taking up vaccination. On ‘minor days’ we will have 10 government facilities and 36 private hospitals which will be taking up vaccination. We have also decided to increase individual targets for PHCs from 100 to 200 and 200 to 300,” said an officer from the district health department.

On ‘major days,’ the district will have to achieve a target of vaccinating 14,000 beneficiaries each day, while on ‘minor days’ it is given a target to inoculate 4,000 people.

The weekly target has also been spelt out for each of the 75 districts across the district. Ghaziabad is given a target of vaccinating 54,000 beneficiaries every week in April. The overall vaccination target given to the 75 districts of the state is 12,073,200 for April, the officials said.