UP sees 27.51% turnout in round 9 of vaccination

92.41% beneficiaries turn up for 2nd shot in Lko; only 40.37% of those called for first dose reach vaccination centres

LUCKNOW: The ninth round of the Covid-19 vaccination campaign in UP on Monday saw only 69,742 health workers (27.51 %) out of the targeted 2,53,538 getting the first and second jabs at 1,537 vaccination centres till 5pm, according to official data.

The state health and family welfare department had planned to give the second dose to 22,620 health workers who got the first dose on January 16 while the 2,30,918 health workers who missed the vaccine jabs in the earlier rounds were also listed for Monday’s vaccination round.

A health department officer said approximately 90% (20,000) of the health workers visited the vaccination centres for the second dose. There was low turnout of health workers (49,384) for the first dose.

“All the 75 districts of UP saw a large turnout of health workers for the second dose, whereas the turnout for the first dose was less than expected,” he said.

The beneficiaries who got the

first vaccine shot during the day will be given the second dose on March 15. The next round of Covid vaccination for frontline workers will be organized on February 18. Health care work

ers, who got the dose on January 22, will be given the second dose on February 19, he said.

Five districts reported the highest turnout of beneficiaries – Banda (60.02%), Shahjahanpur (57.75%), Mathura (46.55%), Jaunpur (45.09%), Baghpat (43.82%) whereas five districts that saw the lowest turnout included Siddharthnagar (10.13%), Mahoba (14.30%), Azamgarh (15.32%), Bulandshahr (15.60%) and Sultanpur (16.75%).

All the beneficiaries who got the vaccine jab on Monday were safe and healthy, said the health department officer.

In Lucknow, 780 out of the 844 (92.41%) health workers listed for the second dose of Covid vaccine turned up to take the jab while 40.37% of the targeted health workers (5,442 out of 13,480) called for their first dose came for vaccination on Monday. The overall turnout was 43.71% as 6,222 of the targeted 14,324 beneficiaries came for vaccination.

“Of the total doses, 9,037 were of Covishield. Of these, 3,279 were given to people who came for their first dose while 780 were given to those who came for the second dose,” said Dr MK Singh, in-charge of vaccination in Lucknow. There were 5,197 doses of Covaxin and it was used for 2,163 beneficiaries, he said.

Several issues resulted in poor turnout. During the mop-up round also, many beneficiaries did not respond to phone calls that were made to them after SMSes informing them about vaccination were sent 24 hours in advance.