Noida, Gzb & Ggm winding up to launch mega vax drive in July

Noida/Gurugram: With the Centre's revised Covid vaccination policy now taking hold after a record vaccination drive on June 21, National Capital Region cities of Noida, Ghaziabad and Gurugram are now winding up once again to launch into what they are calling a mega vaccination campaign starting next month.

Both Gautam Buddh Nagar and Ghaziabad districts have been divided into blocks and clusters with additional free vaccination drives across all high-rise societies.

While currently, both districts are administering around 20,000 doses every day, the target is to double this capacity beginning July. As per officials, the number of clusters will be increased to 85, where 115 additional session sites would be set up in Noida.

In Ghaziabad, the entire district will be divided into 56 blocks and over 200 clusters. In July, a target to vaccinate 8 lakh people has been sought by the authorities.

In fact, in preparation for a similar mega vaccination drive, the Gurugram district administration has now sought 1 lakh doses in the next few days. Authorities here are looking to specifically target those due for their second dose in this campaign.

The Gurugram district administration also plans to specifically target the younger population who are in the age category of 18-44. Health officials said that there are around one million people in this age group, of which over 2 lakh have recieved either of their doses.

Gurugram is currently administering around 11,000 to 12,000 doses every day and the target is to raise this to 30,000 soon.

At present Gurugram has over 50,000 doses of vaccines that are available. According to officials' inventories will now be replenished after every four days under the new scheme of vaccination drive as compared to a week earlier.

"The present deadly wave that has just gone has made people more cautious and everyone wants to get vaccinated. There is also greater emphasis on vaccination drives in rural areas and the results have been encouraging from these areas as well," said Dr MP Singh the deputy chief medical officer of Gurugram.

Meanwhile, even as Dadri and Jewar vaccination centres are open for those registering on the Co-WIN application, to increase capacity at these facilities, the administrations are planning to induct 300 third-year nurses students and private hospital nurses. And for verification and administrative tasks, teachers will be used.

Moreover, the free vaccination camps for high-rise societies are set to begin from July 1. A senior officer said that requisitions are being asked to submit while the schedules and being prepared. "An in-charge for each vaccination Center will be appointed and it will be a walk-in drive where people will be given shots free of cost," the officer said.