To enhance Covid vaccination coverage, UP directs opening of community health centres for six days a week
Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar administrations have decided to open more government health-care facilities for six days a week in order to increase the Covid-19 vaccination coverage in the two districts
Ghaziabad: Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar administrations have decided to open more government health-care facilities for six days a week in order to increase the Covid-19 vaccination coverage in the two districts. The move comes after the Uttar Pradesh health department on Sunday directed opening of community health centres (CHCs) for six days a week as against three days a week earlier.
In Ghaziabad, district health department officials said that the four CHCs at Loni, Muradnagar, Modinagar and Dasna will now open six days a week for the vaccination purposes. Besides, the district women hospital will also remain open for six days in a week, they said.
“We have received directions for opening of our CHCs for six days a week. Besides, we have also decided to open the women hospital for six days in a week. Thus, we will be able to vaccinate about 4,800 more beneficiaries every week,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer of Ghaziabad.
Overall, Ghaziabad has presence of 45 government facilities and 31 private hospitals which are taking up Covid-19 vaccination for the senior citizens and people aged 45 years and above having comorbid conditions. Recently, the district health officials had set a target of inoculating 10,900 beneficiaries per day in the 45 government health-care facilities.
In GB Nagar, the health department officials said that the five CHCs in the district will now operate for six days a week. The Government Institute of Medical Sciences and the district hospital in Sector 30 are already operating six days a week for the vaccination purposes, the officials said, adding that the district also has about 42 private hospitals which are engaged in the vaccination process.
“We have also increased the government health and wellness centres for four days a week on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. There are five such centres in Jewar and four each in Dadri and Dankaur. So, with the new arrangement, we will further enhance our vaccination coverage,” said Dr Deepak Ohri, chief medical officer of GB Nagar.
On Sunday, Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’s additional chief secretary (health), urged the public representatives and government staff, among others, to come out and help improve the vaccination coverage. “We have now changed opening of CHCs from three days a week to six days a week. The idea is to give more coverage to senior citizens and get them vaccinated early so that the effect of Covid-19, in case it rises, is negligible. The primary health centres will operate for three days as usual for vaccination,” said Prasad.
As per previous directions of the UP government, the district hospitals and medical colleges in the state were to open for six days while other government health-care facilities were to open for three days on Monday, Thursday and Friday. The private hospitals which are charging for vaccination were directed to open for a minimum of four days a week.
The officials, citing figures of Co-Win portal, said that till March 13 Ghaziabad completed vaccination of 61,205 beneficiaries while GB Nagar vaccinated 58,804 beneficiaries since the vaccination began on January 16.
The state health department officials said that a total of 26,43,841 doses were administered to different categories of beneficiaries till March 13, and these included 20,30,600 who got their first dose and 6,13,241 got second dose as well.