As many as 914 senior citizens, including 181 from Ranchi and 129 from Bokaro, were administered a dose of the Covishield vaccine in Jharkhand on Monday, the first day of the immunization programme for people above the age of 60, data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.

At least 126 people above the age of 45 years and suffering from comorbid conditions also got the vaccine in the state on Monday, a report released by the NHM said, further highlighting that as many as 44 of the beneficiaries were from Bokaro and only 18 from Ranchi.

As per government data, no senior citizen turned up for the vaccination in Khunti district, while at least 11 of 24 districts did not administer even a single middle-aged beneficiary with comorbid conditions. East Singhbhum, with district headquarters in Jamshedpur, administered the vaccine to only 33 senior citizens and three persons above the age of 45 years.

The government aims to inoculate around 37 lakh senior citizens and people with comorbidities in the second phase of the vaccination drive in Jharkhand, an NHM official said. He added that the number of senior citizens getting vaccinated daily would increase gradually as more empanelled hospitals start administering the jabs in the state.

The vaccination programme in Jharkhand was suspended on Saturday and Sunday as healthcare workers in private hospitals were being trained, officials said. On Monday, the state achieved only 21 per cent of its target for vaccination of healthcare workers and frontline workers by inoculating only 3826 of over 18,000 registered beneficiaries, revealed government data.

Ranchi achieved only 15 per cent of its vaccination target for healthcare workers and frontline workers on the day, while Lohardaga was the worst performer with only 7 per cent target achieved. Bokaro performed the best even in vaccinating healthcare workers and frontline workers. The district vaccinated 353 beneficiaries and achieved 67 per cent of its target.

The registration for vaccination of senior citizens and middle-aged people with comorbid conditions was done through the Co-Win 2.0 portal in most of the hospitals, but beneficiaries also had the choice to register in person or over the phone.

So far, the state has administered the first dose of the vaccine to 2,95,242 people and the second dose to 27,911 people, as per government data. On Monday, as many as 4,154 of 10,257 beneficiaries were administered the second dose of the vaccine in Jharkhand. Jharkhand has so far achieved 81 per cent of its target for the first dose of vaccine and 68 per cent of the target for the second dose.

Active cases down to 485

As many as 37 people were infected by the Covid-19 virus on Monday in Jharkhand, while 46 patients recovered, bringing the number of active cases down to 485, a bulletin released by NHM on Monday night stated.

However, the number of active cases jumped to 286 in Ranchi as the district reported only 18 recoveries against 22 fresh cases. There were no Covid casualties on Monday.

With 44 fresh cases and 40 recoveries, Jharkhand reported a minor rise in the number of active cases on Sunday. However, Ranchi witnessed a drop in active cases as 23 people were found infected and 28 patients recovered.

In the past 48 hours, Jharkhand has reported two Covid casualties, both on Sunday, and a drop in active cases from 494 to 485. So far, as many as 1,090 people have died of Covid-19 in the state and 246 of them were from Ranchi.