Gujarat to organise mega vaccination drive against Covid-19 on Sept 17

Speaking to reporters in the capital city of Gandhinagar, additional chief secretary (health) Manoj Aggarwal said that beneficiaries who are yet to receive their first dose and those who are due for their second dose will be covered under Friday’s vaccination drive.

A mega vaccination drive against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will be held in Gujarat on Friday, a senior health official said on Thursday, adding the aim is to cover more than 3.5 million eligible beneficiaries and also ensure 100% vaccination in 7,500 villages of the state.

Since the beginning of the vaccination drive in January this year, authorities in Gujarat have administered more than 53.3 million vaccine doses to eligible beneficiaries till now. (File photo)

Speaking to reporters in the capital city of Gandhinagar, additional chief secretary (health) Manoj Aggarwal said that beneficiaries who are yet to receive their first dose and those who are due for their second dose will be covered under Friday’s vaccination drive.

Aggarwal said that preparations for the mega inoculation drive, especially to cover people in rural areas, have been completed and an online review meeting was held with the district collectors and municipal corporations to make the campaign a success.

Since the beginning of the vaccination drive in January this year, authorities in Gujarat have administered more than 53.3 million vaccine doses to eligible beneficiaries till now. More than 38.6 million beneficiaries have been given the first dose and the remaining 14,688,469 are fully vaccinated.

Claiming that Gujarat is leading among the states with regard to the vaccination coverage, additional chief secretary (health) Manoj Aggarwal also told reporters on Thursday that 100% of the beneficiaries above the age of 18 haver received the first dose across 5906 villages, 104 primary health centres, 14 urban health centres and 17 talukas.

The senior government official added the state government has set up a robust storage facility for vaccines with six zone-level stores, 41 district and corporation-level stores and 2,236 cold chain points operational to meet the requirement.

Gujarat has so far recorded 825,655 cases, 815,423 discharges, 150 active cases and 10,082 deaths due to the coronavirus disease. On Wednesday, the state saw 15 cases and 19 more recoveries while no patients succumbed to Covid-19, keeping the toll unchanged.

(With PTI inputs)