Gujarat: After gradual response, inoculation centres elevated to 510 in state

WITH THE first two days of Covid-19 vaccination in Gujarat registering a tepid response, falling wanting its goal on each days by practically 20 share factors, there was a shift technique. Instead of focusing on 100 beneficiaries at every of the 161 vaccination websites, authorities have now upped the variety of inoculation websites whereas easing the variety of recipients. On Saturday, vaccines have been administered at 510 websites, nearly thrice the variety of websites chosen up to now.
According to knowledge supplied by state immunisation officer Nayan Jani, an “estimated 32,000 health workers were vaccinated across Gujarat, of the estimated 36,000 who were scheduled” to be administered the primary vaccine dose Saturday.
Until Friday, Gujarat had vaccinated 46,150 well being employees, Press Information Bureau knowledge states. An estimated 78,150 doses of Covishield have been administered till Saturday night within the state, it provides.
While Jani mentioned the ramp-up got here following “instructions and guidelines from the Government of India to all states to slowly take a decision on increasing the number of sites”, some district-level well being officers mentioned the transfer comes on the again of an extra non-working day within the upcoming week on Republic Day. Also, the oral polio drive is predicted to start from January 31, which has already been deferred this 12 months.
Apart from these, the prevailing off-days for Covid-19 vaccination embody routine immunisation days of Mondays and Wednesdays and weekly holidays on Sundays.
A well being division official mentioned, “States have to consult with the central government on vaccine site ramp-up because one also has to be mindful of the CoWIN application since the vaccination drive is being executed over this platform. It is possible that if states unilaterally decide to ramp up the number of vaccination sites, the server may slow down or crash.”
The Gujarat well being division is focusing on to finish inoculating its practically 4.5 lakh registered well being employees “within the next 15 working days”, Jani mentioned.
On Saturday, Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) trebled its vaccination websites — from 20 such websites till now to 60. Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) too doubled the variety of vaccination centres in its jurisdiction, from 14 to twenty-eight websites.
While the state well being division in its Covid-19 vaccination schedule stipulated vaccination in rural or district areas on 4 days — Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday — and mandated three days of vaccination in municipal company areas — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday – the civic physique in Ahmedabad had continued its drive on Friday, albeit with 15 websites towards the standard 20 vaccination websites designated (previous to the ramp-up).
“Our target right now is to cover maximum health workers that we can because next week we will not have Covid-19 vaccination on all four days. Also, starting today, we have increased our vaccination sites to 60 following a meeting and consultation with Ahmedabad Hospitals and Nursing Homes Association (AHNA) and Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA). Their members have now liaised with our deputy health officers (to coordinate the drives in respective areas),” an AMC well being official mentioned.
The official mentioned initially, AMC areas had 20 vaccination websites and a goal of inoculating 2,000 beneficiaries, of which roughly 1,500 would get the jab. “Today, for 60 sites we have a target of vaccinating around 4,500, of which we vaccinated 3,174 beneficiaries. Among the new sites in AMC area are private hospitals, government hospitals, urban health centres (UHCs) as well as schools. The increase in vaccination sites will reduce the waiting period and we are planning to complete vaccinating health workers in AMC jurisdiction within the next 10 days,” the official added.
Surat civic physique administered 2,855 doses to beneficiaries throughout its 28 session websites on Saturday,
SMC deputy well being commissioner Dr Ashish Naik mentioned.

On January 16, the primary day of the vaccination, 1,247 vaccines have been administered throughout the 14 vaccination centres in SMC, whereas 1,297 doses have been administered on January 19. A marginal improve was seen on January 21 when 1,356 vaccine photographs have been administered.
“We have around 33,000 registered health workers in Surat city, of them till date we have vaccinated 6,755 health workers which is 20 per cent of the total registered health workers. Seeing the good number of beneficiaries, we have added centres at New Civil hospital, SMIMER hospital, private hospitals in the city,” Naik mentioned.
Meanwhile, Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) achieved 103 per cent vaccination goal with 1,867 individuals taking the jab as towards 1,800 registered beneficiaries within the fourth spherical of vaccinations at 18 centres Saturday.