Ghaziabad plans mega vaccination drive

The district health department has planned to take up another mega Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday, for which they have placed a request for about 70,000 doses, said officials aware of the development

The district health department has planned to take up another mega Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday, for which they have placed a request for about 70,000 doses, said officials aware of the development.

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According to the CoWIN portal, till 7.30pm on Thursday, the district has so far administered 1,677,366 vaccine doses and stood third in the state after Lucknow (2,246,535 doses) and Gautam Budh Nagar (1,776,904 doses).

During the last vaccination drive held on August 3, the district topped the list of shots administered in a day in the state, with 79,822 beneficiaries receiving the jab--the highest single-day tally in the district so far.

“After the drive on August 3, we have planned to administer about 60,000 doses and have asked for about 70,000 doses from state officials for the purpose. Such mega vaccination drives will help us increase our coverage and benefit beneficiaries, who find it difficult to book slots. We will open more jab centres on Monday to meet our vaccination target,” said Dr Bhavtosh Shankhdhar, chief medical officer.

“The daily doses administered is around 10,000 per day and this is because there are few vaccine stocks. This forces us to keep a limited number of vaccination centres open and hence, beneficiaries face delays in getting the jab,” said an officer from the health department who wished not to be named.

According to the figures of the district health department, till August 11, the district achieved 41.75% first dose coverage for beneficiaries in the 18-45 age group. Likewise, the first dose coverage for 45+ age group category is 55.35% for first dose and 25.55% for the second dose.

To increase the second dose coverage, the UP government recently declared Saturday as a ‘second dose day’, when only second vaccines dose will be administered to beneficiaries.

Experts said that extensive drives should be carried out every week so that more beneficiaries can get vaccinated.

“Due to short supply of vaccine, there are days when very few beneficiaries get the jab. Mega drives increase community outreach. People will go to the vaccination centres if such facilities are opened in colonies and local residential areas. Hence, such drives are ideal to cater to a large population and get more beneficiaries vaccinated ,” said Dr V B Jindal, former president of Indian Medical Association (Ghaziabad chapter).