Noida falls short of target to vaccinate 12K as turnout dips

PEOPLE MAY HAVE THOUGHT THAT JAB CENTRES ARE NOT OPEN AS STATE MOURNED DEATH OF KALYAN SINGH, SAID DM SUHAS

The Gautam Budh Nagar district on Monday failed to ramp up the inoculation drive as it administered only 6,589 doses of Covid-19 vaccines at 26 government inoculation centres. The district health department on Sunday decided to accelerate the vaccination drive in the district, saying that more than 12,000 doses would be administered at 27 government-run Covid vaccination centres (CVCS).

According to officials, since the UP government had announced three-day (from Saturday to Monday) state mourning to condole the demise of former chief minister Kalyan Singh, the district administration decided to postpone the vaccination at one of the centres, i.e. at the Noida Entrepreneurs Association (NEA) building.

GB Nagar district magistrate, Suhas LY, said that most of the CVCS witnessed low turnout as people thought that the centres would be closed on account of the state mourning over the death of former chief minister Kalyan Singh. “The district hospital in Sector 30 and the Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) administered as many as 1,500 doses each. The district health department made vaccination centres in a planned way, so that even the people residing in remote areas could easily come to the booths to get their jabs,” he said.

The officials said that apart from primary health centres (PHCS) and community health centres (CHCS), the vaccination centres have also been made at some government schools and community halls. “This week, we are hopeful to cross the last week’s vaccination figures of 76,124,” Suhas said.

The DM further said that out of the total 1,589,815 eligible population, as many as 1,490,951 have taken at least one dose till Monday evening, which is nearly 94% of the total eligible population. “Though there is a statewide paucity of vaccines, we hope that by the end of October, everyone of this eligible lot will have at least one dose of the vaccines,” he said.

Dr Neeraj Tyagi, district immunisation officer, said that at present, the district health department is left with around 40,000 doses of vaccines. “We got 26,000 doses of vaccines on Monday. With this stock, we can easily run the drive for three more days with the same pace. However, we’ve sent our requisition for more vaccines to the state health department,” he said. The officials said that three health care workers and two policemen were deployed at each centre for the smooth vaccination drive.