Ghaziabad plans one more mop-up Covid vaccination round for health-care workers

Ghaziabad: The district health department, which is struggling to improve turnout for Covid-19 vaccination, has decided to conduct an additional mop-up round on February 19 for 5,371 health-care workers

Ghaziabad: The district health department, which is struggling to improve turnout for Covid-19 vaccination, has decided to conduct an additional mop-up round on February 19 for 5,371 health-care workers. The decision was taken after the first mop-up round conducted on Monday for left out health workers recorded a very poor coverage of nearly 20%, officials said.

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During the mop-up round on February 15, only 1405 beneficiaries, out of listed 6,776 health-care workers, opted to get vaccinated, the officials said. Also, on February 15, 309 of 379 identified health workers, who had received their first dose during the inaugural session of January 16, got their second shot and their coverage stood at 81.53%.

The department has decided that they will conduct one more mop-up round where they will devote 30 sessions for health workers and also similar number of sessions for front-line workers who will get their first dose.

“February 19 will also be the day when those who received the first dose on January 22 will come to get second dose. On the same day, we will conduct a final mop-up round for remaining health workers who have so far not arrived to take up their first dose,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer.

According to the officials, the district has a total of 24,340 health-care workers and about 19,100 front-line workers whose vaccination round is presently in progress. Of 24,340 health workers, 18,969 have received vaccine while only 4,138 front-line workers have opted for getting the shots.

The front-line workers include personnel of police and central police forces, home guards, jail staff and staff of Nagar Palikas, among others.

During the nine rounds of vaccination, including one mop-up round, from January 16 to February 15, the district has an overall coverage of 77.93% of health workers and 45.73% (4,138 of 9,047 mapped) front-line workers so far.

“The low turnout of front-line workers is a cause of concern. But we have requested respective departments to increase awareness and also take steps suggested by the state officials in their recent communication. The mop- up round for front-line workers is scheduled for February 22. We intend to start the vaccination for third category of beneficiaries from March 15 and will vaccinate them over a period of six months,” Dr Gupta added.

The third category is of people aged over 50 years and also those aged below but having issues like diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure, etc.