Expand vaccination drive for 18-44 in phased manner: Yogi

: Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Thursday said the Covid-19 vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years’ age group should be expanded in a phased manner in more areas and districts in the state.

From next week, it should be launched under all the municipal corporation limits in the state and Gautam Buddha Nagar for this age group, he said at the Covid review meeting here. The drive for them was launched in seven districts with a high active caseload on May 1. He also laid stress on the need to bring down the vaccine wastage to 0%. “Now from next week, launch the vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years’ age group under all the Nagar Nigam (municipal corporation) limits across the state and Gautam Buddh Nagar,” he said.

The vaccine wastage in the drive for 18-44 years’ age group at 0.39% but there was a need to bring it down to 0%, he said, according to a statement issued by the state government after the Covid review meeting.

Yogi Adityanath said that a total of 68,536 people in the age group of 18-44 years had been vaccinated in the state since the drive for them was launched on May 1. Overall, a total of 1.32 crore vaccine doses were administered in the state since the launch of the vaccination campaign on January 16.aThe state government said it had already floated a global tender for getting 40 million vaccination doses (for 18-44 age group) in the state. On the Covid-19 cases and recoveries, CM said, “In last 24 hours, 26,780 fresh cases surfaced against 28,902 recoveries.”