Now, GB Nagar plans to inoculate 20,500 health-care workers in next two sessions

NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration, which faced dismal turnout in the first two sessions of the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive, has now planned to inoculate as many as 20,500 health-care personnel in the next two sessions to be held on January 29 and 30

NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar district administration, which faced dismal turnout in the first two sessions of the ongoing Covid-19 vaccination drive, has now planned to inoculate as many as 20,500 health-care personnel in the next two sessions to be held on January 29 and 30. For the purpose, the district health department has prepared 82 booths in 30 vaccination centres for the two sessions under the first phase, officials said.

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GB Nagar district chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Deepak Ohri said that so far 2,452 out of 24,453 health workers have been vaccinated in the district. “The response of health workers for inoculation is not very encouraging. While the turnout was 65.5% (393 out of 600) in the first session on January 16, it was 49.02% (2,059 out of 4,200) in the next session on January 22. We have decided to cover the remaining 22,001 health workers in the four sessions left in the first phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive,” he said.

He further said that to cover maximum number of health workers, the number of vaccination booths and hospitals have also been increased. “We had 42 booths in 14 vaccination centres in the last session, which has now been increased to 82 booths in 30 vaccination centres. Not only that, we had made arrangements to inoculate 100 persons at each booth in the earlier rounds, which has now been increased to 125 persons at each booth,” Ohri said.

The CMO also said that the last two rounds of vaccination for the first phase will take place on February 4 and 5. “To ensure 100% turnout in the coming sessions, the vaccination officials have already started sending text messages to beneficiaries about their mandated date of vaccination. They are also inspiring the ASHA and Aanganwadi workers about the benefits of vaccination, who had shown their reluctance in earlier rounds of inoculation,” he said.

Dr Neeraj Tyagi, district in-charge of Covid-19 vaccination, said that since vaccination portal was not working properly during earlier sessions of vaccination, 100% participation of health workers, marked for inoculation, could not be ensured. “Since Co-Win app is a key component of Covid-19 vaccination, the system needs a steady internet connection to upload the details of beneficiaries and their dosage. Our vaccination officials could not make any amendment in the lists made many days ago. We have decided to resolve the issue by adequate number of data entry operators with laptops at all the vaccination booths in the coming sessions,” he said.