In state capital, slump in turnout despite measures

LUCKNOW : After the first and second rounds of the Covid vaccination drive, there was a slump in turnout at vaccination centres in Lucknow on Thursday despite several measures to boost the vaccination percentage.

In the first round on January 16, nearly 29% beneficiaries had missed the vaccine shot. In round two on January 22, around 42% missed the jabs and in the third round 48.70% missed the inoculation, said health department officials.

Measures to boost turnout included calling health staff who were on the list of beneficiaries and also those who were not on the list and announcement of rewards for the three best performing vaccination session sites/booths.

“The three best booths in terms of turnout will be felicitated,” said district magistrate Abhishek Prakash while sharing the scheme. This was aimed to motivate vaccinators to call those beneficiaries who did not turn up despite being on the list.

In the previous two rounds, the usual timings for vaccination were between 9am and 5pm, but in the third round on Thursday the timings were extended for an hour till 6pm for uploading data.

Vaccination teams at different hospitals were seen making calls to the listed beneficiaries. “We have vaccinated 34 till now. As there is no one waiting, we are making calls to the remaining,” said a member in the vaccination team at Civil Hospital, who started calling beneficiaries after 2pm.

Senior officials who took rounds of the vaccination centres also asked the staff to ensure that all those on the list were called for vaccination.