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Ghaziabad achieves 94.75% turnout for inaugural vaccination, none reports any immediate side effects
Of the 400 people scheduled to be vaccinated in Ghaziabad on Saturday, 379 were inoculated and none showed any signs of discomfort, the health department said
Of the 400 people scheduled to be vaccinated in Ghaziabad on Saturday, 379 were inoculated and none showed any signs of discomfort, the health department said.
The district had four vaccination centres --- district women hospital, Santosh Hospital at Vijay Nagar, community health centre at Dasna and Yashoda Hospital at Kaushambi -- each scheduled to inoculate 100 people.
“The 21 who did not attend the drive included lactating women or others who were pregnant. Some were on leave while few had health issues like fever,” said Dr NK Gupta, Ghaziabad chief medical officer, who himself got the shot on Saturday. “After I got the shot, I felt a psychological pressure had lifted. Overall, none of the beneficiaries at the four centres were referred to the adverse event following immunization (AEFI) room which were prepared to take up any emergency which may have resulted.”
Of the 379 beneficiaries who turned up, 182 were women and 197 men. In the first phase, health care workers from both government and private sector turned up.
“The inaugural vaccination went on smoothly and healthcare workers took active participation in making it successful. The turnout on Saturday will also instil confidence in other beneficiaries and we hope to make the overall vaccination drive a success,” said district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey.
Some glitches
Beneficiaries were supposed to receive a text message on Friday informing them of their vaccination date, time and centre.
“During the last dry-run on January 11 we received the SMS but this time, there was none. We were instead informed by staff that we were scheduled for getting the shot. My husband (working in Delhi) and I are doctors and we have in-laws who are aged over 70 years. So, it was important that both of us get the vaccine,” said Dr Garima, who goes by single name and a medical officer with the health department. She received her shot at the Dasna community health centre.
Dr Bharat Bhushan, the in-charge of the Dasna CHC, said: “We had some issues with the system because of which the alert could not be sent to a few beneficiaries. As soon as we got to know of this, we had our staff call them up and inform them.”
Dr NK Gupta confirmed issues with the Co-WIN portal, which was developed by the central government, and that they had backup to deal with the issue.
Dr Rekha Singh, senior consultant at district women hospital, said that the initial slow turnout for the vaccination was due to fear and apprehensions among the beneficiaries.
“There were rounds of rumours going around over the social media and people were also apprehensive about the first shots. My family and especially my husband motivated me a lot. When I took the vaccine i suffered no side effects or any reactions. Even I got calls from my children and they were eager to know how I felt after getting the shot,” she said.
