Jabs for 18+ in five more districts from Monday

Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday said the state government would launch the Covid vaccination for the 18-44 age group in five more districts of UP from Monday.

He also said on-the-spot/ walk-in registration for the second dose for the 45+ age group will continue, but the 18-44 age group and those in 45+ age group (seeking their first dose) will have to do prior online registration (on CoWIN portal). He made the announcements at the Covid-19 review meeting with Team-9. The five districts are Basti, Mirzapur, Azamgarh, Gonda, and Banda. They serve as the headquarters of Basti, Vindhyachal Dham, Azamgarh, Devipatan, and Chitrakoot Dham divisions.

They will join 18 other districts where vaccination for 18-44 age group is already on in the state. The booking for vaccination slots will begin at 10am on Sunday. Additional chief secretary (health and family welfare) Amit Mohan Prasad said the state government was working to increase the vaccination coverage. With the launch of vaccination in five more districts, the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group will now run in 23 districts from Monday.

The vaccination for the 18+ age group was launched in seven high caseload districts on May 1 — Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Meerut, Gorakhpur, Bareilly, and Varanasi.

On May 10, the state government included 11 more districts, including Aligarh, Agra, Ghaziabad, Jhansi, Moradabad, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Mathura, Ayodhya, Shahjahanpur and Gautam Buddha Nagar. The CM said a total of 3.65 lakh people in the 18-44 age group got their first dose since the drive for them began on May 1. Overall, the state has administered a total of 1.47 crore doses so far.

The chief minister said the black fungus disease had manifested in some Covid patients after recovery and so the state should develop a prevention, treatment and management protocol in consultation with the expert medical panel and guidelines should be issued.