1.5 million shots in two months: GB Nagar targets rural blocks

NOIDA: The Gautam Budh Nagar administration targets 1.5 million vaccinations in two months - around 25,000 a day and the focus will be on rural areas.

To do this, it had set out a blueprint: be aggressive and bridge the digital divide in rural areas.

Taking cognisance of the difficulty in accessing the CO-WIN portal in rural areas to register for the vaccine, the district administration has tasked the common service centres (CSCS), which is under the Digital India mission, for an outreach programme.

“The CSC staff are going door-to-door and compiling details of residents to share with the district vaccination department. On the basis of these reports, the department will set up vaccination centres in these areas. At present, we prefer community health centres, primary health centres, schools, panchayat buildings or any public place that have waiting, vaccination and observation rooms as vaccination booths ,” said district magistrate Suhas L Y.

On Tuesday only 11,287 people were vaccinated, according to government data, and the district administration hopes that its push into rural areas will help increase the daily count. Over 590,000 people, more than a quarter of the district population, had been vaccinated at least once till date.

“In terms of vaccination population ratio, the GB Nagar district is one of the best performing districts in the state,” said Suhas.

Dr Deepak Ohri, the chief medical officer, said that private hospitals will also play very important role in achieving the stipulated target.

“While the private hospitals have procured vaccines directly from the manufacturers, there is no dearth of vaccines in the government hospitals. Even the rate of one dose of vaccine is less than its rate in Delhi and other places. The rate of one Covishield dose in private hospitals in GB Nagar is ₹850, while in Delhi and other places – the private hospitals are charging at least ₹100 more for the same shot,” he said.