Statewide campaign to focus on villagers, parents of under-12 children
Statewide drive to cover all above 18 begins today; almost all slots at parents’ special booths booked in 75 districts
LUCKNOW : Vaccination for all beneficiaries above 18 years of age will begin in Uttar Pradesh from Tuesday, focusing particularly on the rural population and those parents who have at least one child below 12 years of age. UP has set a target of administering one crore doses in June. “Almost all the slots at the Abhibhavak Special (parents’ special booths) in 75 districts made for parents who have at least one child below 12 years of age are booked. Parents going there must make sure they have Aadhaar card or the birth certificate of the child below 12 years of age, or else they will be returned by the staff,” said officials.
LUCKNOW: Vaccination for all beneficiaries above 18 years of age will begin in Uttar Pradesh from Tuesday, focusing particularly on the rural population and those parents who have at least one child below 12 years of age.
UP has set a target of administering one crore doses in June.
“Almost all the slots at the Abhibhavak Special (parents’ special booths) in 75 districts made for parents who have at least one child below 12 years of age are booked. Parents going there must make sure they have Aadhaar card or the birth certificate of the child below 12 years of age, or else they will be returned by the staff,” said Amit Mohan Prasad, additional chief secretary (health), on Monday.
“One-third of our vaccination sites are in the rural pockets of the state. In some districts, 40% of the vaccination sites are in rural pockets,” said joint director (routine immunisation) Dr Ajai Ghai. Till now, 23 districts were vaccinating people between 18 and 45 years. Vaccines were being administered to people above 45 years in all districts.
The district magistrates and chief medical officers (CMOs) of all the districts were directed to launch an intensive awareness campaign in the rural areas to motivate the villagers to take the vaccine, said health and family welfare minister Jai Pratap Singh.
The people’s representatives, including newly elected gram pradhans, panchayat members, MLAs and MPs, have been directed to assist the villagers in registration at public service centres in the respective areas for the vaccination.
The health department has completed the training of the health workers who will be deputed at the new vaccination centres across the state. The state government has completed its work plan to ensure regular supply of vaccines at the centres in the rural areas, said the health minister.
He also said, “Villagers who are unable to register themselves and reach (the centres) without slot allotment will be helped with spot registration. The staff have been told that if slots/vaccine doses are available, persons coming to the vaccination centres should not be returned.”
Over 700 community health centres, the sub-centres
attached to them and about 2,000 primary health centres in rural areas will conduct the vaccination. In all, over 5200 sites would conduct the vaccination in the state on June 1. Uttar Pradesh has about 29 lakh doses of Covid vaccines in stock.
“We aim to vaccinate 11 or 12 lakh beneficiaries between 18 and 45 years of age and an equal number of those above 45 years in one week. The target will go up further as response from the effort comes in the next one week,” said Dr Ghai.
The next big consignment of vaccines is expected by June 15.
“We have been vaccinating about 4000 people every day
but with slots opening up for people between 18 and 45 years of age from tomorrow (Tuesday), we expect the daily number to go up to 7000,” said Dr Manoj Agrawal, chief medical officer of Lakhimpur Kheri, where three parents’ special booths have been made.
Slots for 1400 beneficiaries between 18 and 45 years were open and all were booked in Lakhimpur Kheri.
“Starting vaccination in districts for those between 18 and 45 years will certainly give boost to vaccination coverage as this age group is most active. In 23 districts where vaccination for them was started, the
response was over 95%. Barely a few missed their dose which could be due to health reasons,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, secretary general, Association of International Doctors.
In Barabanki, vaccination centres are being set up in different villages.
“Apart from community health centres, we will make vaccination centres in some of the villages also (in any government building such as a primary school) and do vaccination in about 45 villages each day. The coverage will expand in the rural pockets,” said CMO (Barabanki) Dr BKS Chauhan. Barabanki has 1161 villages.