Better turnout, 61.68% vaccination in state capital

LUCKNOW: The state capital recorded 61.68% vaccination in the fourth round of the first phase vaccination for health workers on Friday, as 7811 of the total 12662 beneficiaries took the jab.

This was about 12.98% higher than 48.70% vaccination on January 28 when 6970 of the 14311 beneficiaries were vaccinated. “For this round, the SMSes to beneficiaries were sent two days in advance. Perhaps this gave them time to get mentally prepared and so the turnout was better,” said Dr MK Singh, in charge of vaccination in Lucknow.

There were 104 vaccination sites at 43 different health establishments.

Dr Singh said another reason for the better turnout was senior officials’ visits to hospitals where the percentage was low during the previous rounds.

Another reason for rise in vaccination percentage was that the beneficiaries’ lists had a major chunk of private sector health workers who turned up to get the jab. “It is our responsibility to take the vaccine which is not only safe but will also protect others (coming in contact) as we serve our patients,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors. The list of health workers in Lucknow is over 51,000. Till now 20,459 have been vaccinated.

Some of the major centres where vaccination took place included KGMU where out of the targeted 1875 beneficiaries 1051 (56.05%) were inoculated.

At the Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences, 606 out of the targeted 625 (96.96%) were vaccinated. At Era Medical College 833 (60.58%) of the 1375 beneficiaries were vaccinated.