Vaccination goes up by 10 pc in city

Lokmat News Network

Aurangabad, Nov 25:

The municipal officer of health (MoH) Dr Paras Mandlecha has confirmed that the percentage of vaccination has gone up by 10 after the district administration took drastic measures to accelerate the vaccination drive in the district.

In the backdrop of the possible third wave of Covid pandemic situation, the state government has directed to increase the percentage of vaccination. Earlier, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also given necessary instructions to the district collector Sunil Chavan as the vaccination percentage was low in the district. After the meeting, the district collector issued an order making it mandatory for citizens to take at least one dose of vaccine to get the essential commodities including gas, petrol, ration and grocery. The Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) administrator A K Pandey also issued directives that non-vaccinated persons will not be allowed entry in the government and private offices and will also be not allowed to drive out of the city. Besides, the 'Har Ghar Dastak' scheme was also launched under which the civic personnel visited door to door creating awareness about the vaccine and also administering it. The district administration had also clarified that the salaries of government servants will not be released and even alcohol would not be given to the non-vaccinated persons. As an impact of the action, the primary health centres (PHC) in the city started witnessing long queues. A total of 20,137 persons were vaccinated on Wednesday. The rush was witnessed today as well. The civic administration had a tough time while sending additional teams to several PHCs.

According to MoH, " Various measures are being taken to improve vaccine percentage since November 6. The percentage was 68.38 pc on Wednesday. The percentage of second dose of vaccine has also increased by 9 pc. In the past few weeks, 1.25 lakh citizens had been vaccinated."

Vaccination facility on fuel-pumps

The vaccination facility will be made available at three petrol pumps in the city from Friday. They are situated at Kranti Chowk, Delhi Gate and Ulkanagari, said Dr Mandlecha.

SMS to download certificate before vaccination

Former corporator Shilparani Wadkar shared an incident that had taken place at one vaccination centre in Kranti Chowk ward. She said, " As soon as the information regarding the first dose is uploaded on Cowin App, an SMS is received on the mobile of the beneficiary. The message alerts him to download the vaccination certificate. Many of them are taking advantage of it. They are leaving the centre without taking a second dose after registration." Hence she demanded that the registration process should be either done after administering the vaccine or it should be done simultaneously.