Bihar poised to complete 6 crore Covid jabs in Oct

Bihar made a giant leap, the second biggest in the last fortnight, by administering 27,96,173 Covid-19 doses on Saturday alone during the third mega vaccination camp, even as it was poised to meet the target of administering six crore jabs this month itself, two months before the six-month deadline set by chief minister Nitish Kumar in June

Bihar made a giant leap, the second biggest in the last fortnight, by administering 27,96,173 Covid-19 doses on Saturday alone during the third mega vaccination camp, even as it was poised to meet the target of administering six crore jabs this month itself, two months before the six-month deadline set by chief minister Nitish Kumar in June.

Bihar, by Sunday afternoon, administered a total of 5,74,66,441 doses, nearing the six crore jabs-target set by chief minister Nitish Kumar in June. (HT FILE)

With this, the state, by Sunday afternoon, administered a total of 5,74,66,441 doses--of which 4,51,77,329 were first dose and 1,22,89,112 were second dose, as per data on CoWIN portal

Bihar has an eligible population of 7.22 crore to vaccinate against Covid-19.

The state has achieved 62% first dose vaccination of the eligible population and 27% of the second dose against the first dose administered to those eligible. Capital city Patna, which topped in the state with 1,92,465 inoculations on Saturday, achieved 75% first dose vaccinations and 55% second dose against the first dose.

Besides, 11 of the 38 districts in the state achieved over one lakh inoculations on Saturday. Purnia administered 1,32,062 jabs, Bhagalpur 1,27,338, Samastipur 1,26,314, Darbhanga 1,19,087, Gopalganj 1,18,940, Nalanda 1,08,452, Muzaffarpur achieved 1,07,775, Saran 1,05,266, East Champaran 1,04,864 and Vaishali 1,03,107, as per data on CoWIN portal.

Madhubani and Gaya districts, however, narrowly missed the single-day one lakh dose vaccination-mark by giving 98,018 and 95,928 doses, respectively.

Among the poor performing districts were Sheohar, which administered 10,945 doses, Arwal 13,589, Sheikhpura 17,406, Munger 26,993 and Lakhisarai 27,315 shots on Saturday.

The health department set up 14,887 vaccination sites across the state for the mega camp against an average 2,000 to 3,000 on other days. Vaccinators reached out to people on boats at several places that were flooded.

Earlier on September 17, on which Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s birthday falls, the state achieved the feat of completing country’s highest single-day inoculations of 33,39,879. Prior to that, it administered 27,57,931 doses on August 31 and 9.26 lakh doses on August 5. Its previous best vaccination scores are 2,02,137 doses on March 8 and 1,35,575 jabs on March 12.

Bihar’s performance on the vaccination front has improved with the availability of vaccines. The state’s allotment of Covid-19 vaccines from the Centre has increased over the last few months. Bihar received around 1.4 crore doses last month, surpassing the 1.3 crore doses it received in August.

The state received 11 lakh doses in January this year, when the country-wide Covid-19 vaccination drive began on January 16. It received 12 lakh vaccine doses in February, 14 lakh doses in March, 40 lakh doses in April, 35 lakh doses in May, 57 lakh doses in June and 79 lakh doses in July.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar, during a review meeting with health officials on June 11, set a deadline to administer six crore jabs in six months.