Ludhiana district fourth in vaccination in Punjab

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, April 9

Ludhiana, which was among the high-burden 11 districts and once again becoming the hotspot of Covid in the state, has ranked fourth in the ongoing Covid vaccination drive in the state.

The district-wise figures compiled by the Health and Family Welfare Department on the basis of the data for first dose per million as on April 2, Ludhiana vaccinated 73,003 beneficiaries, which was much higher than the state average of 53,400 shots.

Gurdaspur topped the state with maximum 93,810 inoculation, followed by Mohali 80,699, Hoshiarpur 76,904, Jalandhar 72,037, Pathankot 69,857, Amritsar 61,843, Nawanshahr 52,461, Faridkot 48,938, Patiala 43,566, Kapurthala 41,672, Tarn Taran 38,472, Ropar 34,333, Bathinda 34,248, Ferozepur 33,735, Barnala 31,133, Fazilka 27,334, Muktsar 26,056, Moga 25,953, Fatehgarh Sahib 25,462, Sangrur 20,411 and Mansa 17,920.

Following the review of the vaccination drive by Chief Secretary Vini Mahajan on April 3, the inoculation campaign has been extended to all seven days at the health centres, besides holding mobile camps to give shots to the eligible persons at their doorstep.

The state-wide vaccination trends showed that a record 2,52,760 beneficiaries were vaccinated, including 2,38,772 first doses and 13,988 second jabs, during a week between March 27 and April 2, taking the total inoculation figure to 10,36,256, including 9,22,838 first shots and 1,13,418 second doses.

The figures of last 30 days revealed that the inoculation coverage, which was around 10,000 daily on March 3, went up to almost 70,000 per day on April 1.

The category-wise data showed that 53 per cent (1,44,997 of the total registered 2,71,109) healthcare workers were given first dose, while 64 per cent (65,682 of the total 1,02,739 vaccinated with first dose) received the second jab in the state till April 2.

A whopping 91 per cent (2,20,897 of the total registered 2,41,992) frontline workers got their first shot, while 48 per cent (44,851 of the total registered 93,304) were administered the second dose.

Besides, 4,70,462 citizens among the eligible age groups were also vaccinated in the state till last Friday.

In order to ramp up the vaccination drive, the state government has decided not to reserve the vaccine for the second dose, while fixing the weekly target of more than 16 lakh jabs for the next two weeks.

While two days — Tuesday and Friday — every week will be observed as mega vaccination days, government hospitals in districts and subdivisions and community health centres will serve as vaccination centres for all seven days.

“We have fixed minimum district-wise vaccination targets to be achieved by every district per week and accordingly, the state aims to inoculate 16,38,000 beneficiaries every week. Besides mobile vaccination camps, the district hospitals and medical colleges in the state were holding two shifts daily from 8 am to 2 pm and 1 pm to 7 pm to achieve maximum coverage of the eligible beneficiaries,” said Hussan Lal, Principal Health Secretary.