UP to give jabs to 18-44 age group in 11 more dists
Don’t vaccinate people with Covid or its symptoms, says Yogi and asks medical education minister to be in regular touch with vaccine firms for securing supplies
LUCKNOW : The state government would launch the Covid-19 vaccination drive for people in the 18-44 years’ age group in 11 more districts of Uttar Pradesh on Monday.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath made the announcement at a Covid-19 review meeting here on Friday.
He also asked the medical education minister to be in regular touch with the vaccine making companies for securing supplies for the state.
The districts where vaccination for the 18-44 age group will start on Monday are Aligarh, Agra, Ghaziabad, Jhansi, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Mathura, Ayodhya, Shahjahanpur and Gautam Buddha Nagar, according to a government statement. The vaccination will be done at some centres, the names of which pop up when one registers on the CoWin portal.
The vaccination campaign for the 18-44 category was initially started in seven districts with a high active caseload—Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Bareilly —on May 1. Since then, 85,566 people in this age group have been vaccinated. Yogi said that so far, the state had vaccinated 1.34 crore people statewide
(since the start of the overall Covid-19 vaccination campaign on January 16). The state has 75 districts.
The chief minister also asked for suspending on-the-spot registration for inoculation, adding that jabs should be given only to such persons who have pre-registered for their dose.
Besides, he said people with the Covid-19 infection, or its symptoms should not be given the vaccine till a month after recovery.
On the day of the launch of the vaccination in 11 districts, the minister in charge of those districts or local people’s representatives should be present at one or the other vaccination centres there, the chief minister said.
Regarding pre-registration, he said: “On-the-spot registration may cause chaos. So that there is no unnecessary crowding at vaccination centres, it would be appropriate to do the vaccination through online registration. If possible, also contact the preregistered beneficiaries a day or two before their appointed vaccination date.”
About not giving jabs to Covid-19 positive patients, he said, “Health experts have advised that those with the Covid-19 infection or symptoms should not be vaccinated. The experts have said that those with the Covid infection should be vaccinated not before a month after recovery. Spread this advice among the people.”
He also said the vaccine wastage had come down further.
“The best part of vaccination in this (18-44) age group is that the vaccine wastage is minimal, perhaps due to enthusiasm in the age group. The wastage percentage that was 0.39% has further come down to 0.11% and our target is to make it 0%.”
He once again emphasised on the “trace, test, treat, vaccinate” policy to control the Covid-19 infection, saying that it was giving favourable results.
“On April 30, the state had 3.10 lakh active cases, and, in a week’s time, they fell by 55,000. The highest number of positive cases was recorded on April 24 and since then there is a regular decline in the fresh positive cases. At the same time, the number of people recovering is steadily rising,” he said.
He said that in the last 24 hours a total of 28,076 fresh cases had been recorded while a total of 33,117 recovered and were discharged from hospitals.
Earlier on Thursday, the CM held the first meeting with medical experts’ panel that the state has constituted for expert advice to Team-9. Team-9 is a team of top bureaucrats and two senior ministers engaged in Covid management.