PUNE About 81% of the eligible population aged above 15 years has taken their second dose of vaccine in the state. Around 88 million people aged above 15 years have taken their first dose and out of these 88 million people, 71 million have also taken their second dose. However as of Tuesday, over 2 million eligible beneficiaries aged between 12 and 14 years have taken their first dose while only 0.35 million have taken their second dose. On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the chief ministers and health officials of all states and asked them to focus on increasing vaccination among children and continuing to follow Covid-19 appropriate behaviour.
On Wednesday, while addressing the meeting along with the state chief ministers and health officials, the PM said, “Omicron and its sub-variant can lead to serious implications as we can see happening right now in Europe. In the past two weeks, there has been a reported surge in some states and we need to be cautious of it. We have learnt a lot from the last Covid-19 wave caused by Omicron which was successfully dealt with. Citizens were on alert and did not panic during the third wave. Health infrastructure and the oxygen supply were stabilised and so in the third wave, no states reported any shortage. This was also possible due to the high vaccination rate in the country.”
“Vaccine is the biggest shield against Covid-19. Surge in Covid-19 cases is a concern for parents as schools reopen after two years. A special drive must be initiated in schools in coordination with teachers and parents. Precautionary dose is also available for everyone now. During the third wave, we saw that even though cases continued to rise at drastic levels, the economic cycle continued and we have to maintain this balance in future as well. Test-Track-Treat strategy should continue. All positive samples should be sent for genome sequencing to detect any new variants or sub-variants,” the PM said.
{{/usCountry}}“Vaccine is the biggest shield against Covid-19. Surge in Covid-19 cases is a concern for parents as schools reopen after two years. A special drive must be initiated in schools in coordination with teachers and parents. Precautionary dose is also available for everyone now. During the third wave, we saw that even though cases continued to rise at drastic levels, the economic cycle continued and we have to maintain this balance in future as well. Test-Track-Treat strategy should continue. All positive samples should be sent for genome sequencing to detect any new variants or sub-variants,” the PM said.
{{/usCountry}}As of Tuesday, 91% of healthcare workers have got both doses of the vaccine in the state; whereas 92% of frontline workers, 83% of senior citizens, and 80% of beneficiaries in the 15 to 60 age group have got both doses. While two million kids aged between 12 and 14 years have taken their first shot of the vaccine and out of these two million kids, only 0.35 million have taken both doses. As the reporting of new Covid-19 cases was at an all-time low, the demand for the vaccine was also low which is now likely to increase as cases surge in metropolitan areas. On Tuesday, 171,503 people took the vaccine as per the CoWin portal.