Only 38% turnout for Covid-19 vaccination in Ghaziabad

Ghaziabad’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage remained low at just 38

Ghaziabad’s Covid-19 vaccination coverage remained low at just 38.67% for frontline workers (FLWs) who got their first dose on Thursday, the 10th day of the drive.

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FLWs include police, paramilitary personnel and district officials. Overall, 41.51% of listed FLWs got their shot till date.

“We wanted to vaccinated 7,168 people today, but only 2,772 turned up,” said district chief medical officer Dr N K Gupta. “We administered Serum Institute of India’s Covishield to 627, while 2,145 got Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin. Thirty-three centres and 67 health teams were involved in the immunisation drive today. We will once again approach departments to encourage their staff to vaccinate although it is purely voluntary.”

The vaccination drive began on January 16. Health care workers (HCWs) were part of phase 1, while in phase 2 that began on February 5FLWs too joined in. The third phase, around mid-March, will see people about the age of 50 and those with comorbidities get the dose.

The vaccination coverage for HCWs was 73.52%. Experts had earlier attributed the disparity in coverage to higher awareness among HCWs.

On Friday, the health department will take up another round of vaccination which also include a second “mop up” round for about 5,700 HCWs who had missed their dose. The day will also see the 3,251 HCWs who got their first shot on January 22 get their second shot.

“The vaccination on Friday will be taken up at 35 centres with the help of 53 teams. However, we are not expecting bigger turnout for the final mop up round as the previous mop up round registered only 19.13% coverage (1,405 of 7343 getting the shots),” Dr Gupta added.