80-year-old drives bike for 68 kms to be the first to take jab of Covid-19 vaccine
RANCHI: Ramkishore Sahu, an 80-year-old retired school teacher, took a 68-km-long road journey to be the first vaccine beneficiary at Ranchi’s sadar Hospital, as Jharkhand kickstarted the second phase of Covid-19 vaccination drive on Monday.
Under the second phase of the drive, citizens aged 60 years and above, and those aged 45 years and above with comorbidities would be inoculated.
Sahu, a resident of village Tanzamdih under Ranchi’s Tamar block, reached Sadar Hospital around 9am but could only avail his first dose after a two-hour long wait. However, the wait failed to damped his excitement, as he was visibly satisfied after getting the jab, but was equally sad as his wife could not accompany him.
“I reached here around 9 am. It was not a big deal if I had to wait for two hours, as it was the first day. I felt no discomfort after getting the shot. I would now ride back on my motorcycle to my village. The only regret is that my wife couldn’t come with me, as we have only one helmet,” Sahu said.
However, Sahu was not the lone case with regard to delaying in vaccine administration. Vaccination for the second phase started late at almost every centre across the state on day one. Long queues could be seen at few centres, as people were made to wait due to technical reasons, including their verification.
“Vaccination was successfully carried out at all government and private centres on the first
day. We observed that people were quite interested in taking the vaccine, which is a positive sign. We are going to scale up the number of vaccination centres across state. Some centres witnessed crowding, as the process started late there. But, things will be spruced up from tomorrow,” state nodal officer (vaccination) Dr Ajit Prasad.
On the other hand, mismanagement prevailed at Ranchi’s Sadar hospital, where people were kept waiting for hours in the name of verification of identity.
Three vaccination rooms and one observation room was set up for the purpose. While vaccination for the second dose of health care workers was carried out in one of the rooms, inoculation of front line workers and elderly citizens for the first dose was done in the other two rooms.
Ironically, people could also be seen violating basic Covid-19 protocols such as wearing masks and maintaining socal distancing. “I came here after completing online registration. But, I was asked to go through verification process first. When I approached for the same, I was told that people who came for the second dose would be dealt with first and thereafter verification process would start,” said a senior citizen Anand Shankar Mohanty, who went to Ranchi Sadar hospital.
Old-age home members get the shot
Women residing at an old-age home at Hesag in Ranchi’s Hatia
locality also took the vaccine on Monday. The district administration made prior arrangements for transportation of these women, who received the jab at Doranda’s CHC.
Ranchi’s two private hosp fail to start drive
The only two private hospitals in Ranchi--Medica and Raj Hospital-which have been allowed to carry out the inoculation drive could not start the process on day one of the second phase due to technical glitches, said a senior official in the office of Ranchi civil surgeon.
“We couldn’t start the vaccination Monday due to several
technical glitches, as the system was running very slow. We consulted experts in Delhi, who assured it would be resolved soon. We hope that there would be no difficulty Tuesday,” said Yogesh Gambhir, CEO of Raj Hospital.
1,040 citizens inoculated
As many as 1,040 people of both eligible age groups were inoculated on day one of the second phase. This included 914 citizens above 60 years of age and 126 people between aged between 45 to 59 years and having comorbidities. Ranchi registered the maximum turnout with 199 people getting the first jab.