Ghaziabad, Noida get 370K Covid-19 vaccination target for April

Ghaziabad: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday issued fresh Covid-19 vaccination targets for April, in which people aged over 45 years can get the shots from April 1

Ghaziabad: The Uttar Pradesh government on Friday issued fresh Covid-19 vaccination targets for April, in which people aged over 45 years can get the shots from April 1. The Ghaziabad district has been given a target of covering 216,000 beneficiaries while Gautam Budh Nagar is to cover 162,000 beneficiaries in the coming month.

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The overall vaccination target given to the 75 districts of the state is a total of 12,073,200 for April. This time, the state government has also 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.

Previously, the state government had not assigned daily or weekly targets but had given a combined monthly target.

“The daily and weekly targets have been assigned this time to better monitor and to expedite the vaccination process in the wake of the rising tally. On “major days”, all district hospitals, community health centres (CHC) and even primary health centres (PHC) administer shots, however, PHCs do not administer shots on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday. So, these are called “minor days” when we have a smaller number of healthcare centres running,” said an officer from the district health department.

As per official figures, Ghaziabad for April has been assigned a target of vaccinating 14,000 beneficiaries each of the three major days while 4,000 beneficiaries each are to be vaccinated on the minor days.

This provides the district a weekly target of vaccinating 54,000 beneficiaries per week.

Likewise, GB Nagar is given a weekly target of vaccinating 40,500 beneficiaries per week with 10,000 per day on major days and 3,500 each day for minor days.

“We are gearing up and will open more private and government healthcare facilities to meet the fresh target given for April. Till March 27, we have achieved about 111% of our target given for March. To meet the rise in the number of beneficiaries in the month of April, we will be doubling the daily target of our vaccination centres,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, chief medical officer of GB Nagar.

For the third round of vaccination of senior citizens and people having co-morbidities, GB Nagar was assigned a monthly target of 65,048 beneficiaries while Ghaziabad was given a target of vaccinating 93,480.

According to sources, Ghaziabad, till March 27, administered shots to 73,693 beneficiaries, which is about 78.8% of the given target of 93,480. The sources said that it is unlikely that the district will be able to meet the target for March.

“It is likely that in remaining days, the maximum vaccination that can be achieved will be about 10,000 beneficiaries and it is likely that the target for March will be missed. It is also due to the fact that people will not turn up due to the festive season coming around. Above all, we also have about 20,000 odd doses of vaccine available with us and the next consignment will be received only on April 2,” said an officer from the health department, requesting anonymity.

When approached for response, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said that 30 more vaccination centres at government healthcare centres will be roped in for vaccination starting April 1.

“We are assured that we will be able to get good coverage for vaccination starting April 1 and we are also expediting the vaccination process to complete 100% of the target given for March. We do not have a shortage of vaccines in our stock. We have held a review meeting with our officials and all targets will be achieved,” Pandey added.