Ghaziabad misses target during two mega Covid-19 vaccination drives

The pace of daily vaccinations in the district has started slowing in the last one week, and health department officials have attributed it to the ongoing festival season

The pace of daily vaccinations in the district has started slowing in the last one week, and health department officials have attributed it to the ongoing festival season. The officials said that due to low turnout, the district could not meet its targets during the two mega Covid-19 vaccination drives held on October 8 and 11.

Ghaziabad has so far administered 3,000,750 doses that include 888,195 second doses. (HT Archive)

The target for October 8 mega drive was 45,000 and the district could vaccinate only 30,584 people, while on Monday only 35,732 people were inoculated against the target of 55,000, according to the Co-WIN portal figures.

“It is due to the ongoing festivals that beneficiaries are not coming in large numbers and there is a dip in daily average turnout. Before the start of the festive season, the daily average turnout was about 29,000, which has now come down to about 20,000. So, the mega vaccination drives held on October 8 and 11 also suffered and the targets could not be achieved,” said Dr GP Mathuria, nodal officer for Covid vaccination.

During the first mega vaccination drive on August 3, the district administered 79,822 doses; 42,444 doses during the second drive on August 16; 67,040 during third mega drive on August 27 and 69,248 during the fourth drive held on September 6. The district achieved its highest single day coverage of 110,664 on September 27 during the sixth mega vaccination drive.

Ghaziabad has so far given 3,000,750 doses that include 888,195 second doses, according to the Co-WIN portal figures.

“At present, we have a sufficient stock of Covid vaccines as our allotment has also increased from 16,000 to 23,000 per day. To speed up the coverage, our teams, through tele-calling, are urging beneficiaries to come to Covid vaccination centres and get themselves vaccinated,” Dr Mathuria added.

Experts said that the beneficiaries should not be complacent.

“It is generally seen that people do not move out during the festival season as they usually devote more time to prayers. So, the vaccination turnout has slowed down. But it is essential to get fully vaccinated to get maximum protection against Covid-19,” said Dr Ashish Agarwal, former president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad chapter).