Inoculation sites cut for first phase
GHAZIABAD: The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday cut down its list of Covid-19 vaccination centres from 852 to 311 for phase 1 of the drive set to begin on January 16. This has resulted in Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad seeing the number of vaccination centres in the districts too reduce from eight to six and from seven to three, respectively.
Although there was no official word on why the number of centres were reduced, an official said the Union government had instructed states to ensure the proper delivery of vaccines as efficiently as possible and optimise the use of resources.
In the first phase, health care workers, considered to be most at risk of contracting the virus, would be inoculated. Of the 900,000 expected beneficiaries in the state in this phase, Gautam Budh Nagar and Ghaziabad have listed 21543 and 21800 beneficiaries, respectively.
Both districts on Thursday received their first tranche of 5,625 vials (each containing 10 doses) of Covidshield vaccine, manufactured by Serum Institute of India, from the Meerut depot.
GB Nagar had proposed have eight vaccination centres -Super Speciality Paediatric Hospital & Post Graduate Teaching Institute (better known as Child PGI), Sharda Hospital, Government Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS), Fortis Hospital, Apollo Hospital, Kailash Hospital, Jaypee Hospital and Yatharth Hospital.
“The revised list of centres include Child PGI, GIMS, Sharda Hospital, Kailash Hospital and two community health centres at Bisrakh and Bhangel,” said Dr Neeraj Tyagi, district immunisation officer.
Ghaziabad chief medical officer (CMO) Dr NK Gupta said that the revised list of centres for the district were Yashoda Hospital at Kaushambi, District Women Hospital and community health centre at Dasna.
“It seems that it (reducing number of centres) was done to better manage the first vaccination phase and later on a more detailed vaccination can take place,” said Ajay Shankar Pandey, Ghaziabad district magistrate.
Pandey received the vaccine van, which was escorted by police, and also performed a puja before the sealed vaccine boxes were sent to the vaccine store that will have round-theclock security.
“The vaccine will now be sent to the vaccination centres the evening of January 15 where they will be administered to 100 beneficiaries each at three centres. Nearly 1055500 doses arrived at Lucknow on January 12 and 153500 doses of these arrived at Meerut on January 13,” Pandey said.
Amit Mohan Prasad, UP’S additional chief secretary on Thursday said, “The 311 vaccination centres have been selected for the first phase and thereafter we will increase the number. On January 16, the vaccination will begin from 9am to 5pm as per protocol.”
The Uttar Pradesh government had rolled out the vaccination guidelines on December 21 last year and said that health care workers (HCWS), which include staff of government and private health care facilities, will be part of the phase 1 drive.
The second phase is scheduled for other front line workers such as police personnel, home guards, jail staff and employees of Nagar Palikas, among others, while the third category includes people aged over 50 years and also those aged below 50 but suffering from comorbidities like diabetes, cancer, and high blood pressure.