Ghaziabad: PHCs asked to vaccinate 200 people per day

Ghaziabad: Facing poor Covid-19 vaccination coverage in rural areas, the Ghaziabad administration on Monday took a slew of measures to bring more people to the vaccination centres

Ghaziabad: Facing poor Covid-19 vaccination coverage in rural areas, the Ghaziabad administration on Monday took a slew of measures to bring more people to the vaccination centres. Besides, officials said that primary health centres (PHCs) have been directed to vaccinate 200 beneficiaries per day as against 100 at present.

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According to health department officials, the vaccination coverage in March so far is about 8-10% in rural areas with several primary health centres (PHCs) performing poorly.

District magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey held a review meeting on Monday and directed for more vaccination coverage. “I have issued strict warning to medical officers in charge of four blocks in the district, and have asked the revenue department officials to mobilise people for vaccination. The PHCs have also been asked to take up vaccination of 200 beneficiaries per day. We will shortly take up another review about the performance,” Pandey said.

“We have also asked our lekhpals (local revenue officials) and administrative officers to help out in creating awareness and taking up checks to ensure better coverage,” he added.

The records of Co-Win portal suggested that some PHCs such as Tyodi PHC in Bhojpur (overall 13 vaccinations till Monday evening), Fareednagar (97), Ator (140), Bhowapur (127), Ghyaspur (115), Kakra (153), Farrukhnagar (141) and Mandola (111) were among the lowest performing centres.

The health department at present is engaged in vaccination of senior citizens and people above 45 years having comorbid conditions. The vaccination is taken up majorly by 48 government health-care facilities across the district and another 31 private hospitals which are in urban areas.

Officials of the health department said that they only have services of Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) workers to mobilise local population for vaccination. “More awareness is needed to bring people to the vaccination centres. We have asked the administration to help us out with active participation from administrative and police officers, besides the ration shop owners, to spread awareness among people and encourage them to come to the vaccination centres,” said an officer from the health department.

In neighbouring Gautam Budh Nagar, the vaccination coverage is much better as the district is among the top districts in Uttar Pradesh in terms of achieving their target for the month of March.

According to Co-Win portal figures, GB Nagar has emerged as leader in vaccination coverage across the 75 districts in the state. GB Nagar has achieved 73.56% of its vaccination target (of 65,048) for March, while Ghaziabad has 49.7% coverage (of March’s target of 93480) till March 20.

Officials of the GB Nagar health department said that they plan to open more centres to achieve the target by March 31. “At present, we are operating with 41 government health-care centres and 39 private hospitals. We have decided to add 12 more government centres soon. In GB Nagar, we have no clear demarcation of rural and urban areas, and many beneficiaries from rural areas come to get vaccinated at the nearest urban centres,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, chief medical officer of GB Nagar.