Mega vaccination drive today
GB Nagar plans to vaccinate 39,600 people, while Gzb targets 80,000
NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: Uttar Pradesh will hold its third mega vaccination drive against Covid-19 this month on Friday and Gautam Budh Nagar aims to vaccinate at least 39,600 people while Ghaziabad targets 80,000.
According to Gautam Budh Nagar district health department officials, around 110 new walk-in Covid-19 vaccination centres (CVCS) will be made operational for the drive, in addition to the 30-odd CVCS already running.
Officials said they received around 45,000 vaccine doses on Thursday evening for the drive that is open to all adults from 9am. While people would be allowed to get their vaccination on a walk-in basis at most of these centres, officials said that people should register themselves on the CO-WIN portal first.
“Each of the 140 CVCS will administer doses for those arriving for first or second doses. The new vaccination centres will be at government schools and community centres but will not be at residential societies,” said Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma, chief medical officer, GB Nagar .
District immunisation officer Dr Neeraj Tyagi said, “The CVCS do not require online slot booking, but require people to be registered on CO-WIN. The walk-in facility will also be available at the regular 33 CVCS in addition to slots booked through CO-WIN.”
Since July, Gautam Budh Nagar health department has been vaccinating around 10,000 people a day. In the last mega drive on August 16, the district health department vaccinated 25,622 people. Before that, on August 3, the department administered 41,737 doses.
“GB Nagar has been consistently performing well in terms of its vaccination coverage. We will try to increase the district’s daily vaccination as well, provided we get the required stock of vaccines,” said Dr Sunil Kumar Sharma, chief medical officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.
The district has so far administered 1,955,202 doses, of which 1,513,617 were first dose vaccinations.
Medical experts say that holding frequent mega vaccination drives in the district will help increase vaccination coverage.
“Holding vaccinations with large targets requires a lot of workforce and management from the district health department. Hence, holding such ‘mega’ vaccination drives twice or thrice a month may be challenging
for the department but is a good strategy going forward in order to increase vaccination coverage. If the targets are achieved, it will be an achievement for the district, in its aim to protect the people from any imminent third wave of Covid-19,” said Dr NK Sharma, President, IMA (Noida chapter).
Ghaziabad to have 132 vaccination centres
On Friday, the district will launch a mega vaccination drive that will target administering 80,000 doses of vaccines against Covid-19.
The statewide drive is the third of its kind this month and the health department said they expect to receive around 75,000 doses by Thursday evening.
The district topped the state during the first mega vaccination drive held on August 3 with the administration of 79,822 doses in a single day,
which is also the highest ever by any district in UP. During the second mega drive on August 16, 42,444 doses were administered. Both times, the district exceeded the target that the state government had set for it. This time, the state government has set a target of around 57,000.
“We have requested 75,000 doses from the state government and together with the stock still left with us, 80,000 vaccinations is achievable. We have finalised a micro plan too that will see 132 Covid vaccination centres in the district on Friday,” said Dr GP Mathuria, nodal officer for Covid vaccination.
According to CO-WIN figures till 5.30pm on Thursday, the district so far administered 1,876,324 doses that include 376,792 second doses. It ranks third after Lucknow (2,507,316 doses) and Gautam Budh Nagar (1,957,383) in terms of total doses administered till date.