The Jharkhand government vaccinated over 1.20 lakh residents, including nearly 1 lakh senior citizens, against Covid-19 virus on Day 1 of its special Panchayat level vaccination drive on Saturday, figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.
The health department has set a target of vaccinating 10 lakh rural residents during the drive and achieved more than 10 per cent of the target on Day 1 of the week-long campaign. Over 1.4 lakh beneficiaries, both rural and urban, were registered for the first dose of the vaccine on the day. The state managed to vaccinate 89 per cent of the registered beneficiaries.
State NHM Director Ravi Shankar Shukla inspected vaccination centres in Tati and Churu blocks of Hazaribagh districts on Saturday. Shukla interacted with the beneficiaries and informed them about the benefits of getting vaccinated. He also asked about the reasons behind apprehension of villagers in getting vaccinated and cleared confusion among them.
“The objective behind this special vaccination drive is to ensure maximum possible vaccinations in rural Jharkhand and clear all the apprehensions related to vaccination,” said Shukla.
As per government data, of the 1,20,528 people vaccinated on the day, at least 99,030 were senior citizens and 16,685 were middle-agers with comorbid conditions. Over 11,000 people got the jab in Ranchi, while Hazaribagh administered the first dose of the vaccine to more than 10,000 people on the day. Most of the beneficiaries vaccinated on Saturday were rural residents, officials said.
The special vaccination drive, which started on Saturday, will be held on March 21, 23, 24, 26 and 27. The health department has set up at least one vaccination centre in each of the 4,526 Panchayats. Community Healthcare Centres (CHCs) and Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) are doubling up as Covid vaccination centres during the campaign, officials said.
Meanwhile, the active Covid caseload jumped to 722 in Jharkhand on the day as the state reported 123 fresh cases – the highest single-day-spike this month – and only 54 Covid recoveries, a bulletin from NHM stated. Ranchi reported 57 cases against 35 recoveries on the day, the bulletin further stated.
Various healthcare workers and district level health officials inspected the mass vaccination drive at different blocks and Panchayats of the state on Saturday. No major cases of Adverse Events Following Immunisation (AEFI) were reported from any of the Panchayats, officials said, adding that preference was given to senior citizens and middle-agers with comorbid conditions during the drive.
The second dose of the vaccine was administered to only 6,610 of the over 80,000 people registered for the jab on the day, a report from NHM stated. Jharkhand has so far administered the first dose of the vaccine to more than 7.30 lakh people and the second dose to over 2 lakh people.
