Vaccination drive: Punjab poor present continues, solely 37.40% of registered well being workers inoculated

Since the primary part of the Covid vaccination drive began in Punjab on January 16, the state has managed to vaccinate simply 37.40 per cent of the registered healthcare staff until Tuesday.
In the second part of the vaccination drive too, which began on February 2 for frontline staff (police, sanitation staff, MC staff, defence, paramilitary personnel and so forth)– there hasn’t been any overwhelming response in Punjab with simply 18.33 per cent of the registered frontline staff getting vaccinated until Tuesday.
Meanwhile, just a bit over 2,000 healthcare staff bought the second dose of the vaccine in Punjab (out of those that bought the primary dose) in two days since Monday, as per the newest information.
According to the official figures, of the registered 2.05 lakh healthcare staff in Punjab, simply 76,679, translating to 37.40%, have gotten vaccinated until Tuesday. Healthcare staff in Punjab nonetheless have an opportunity to get the primary dose until February 19, mentioned Dr GB Singh, director well being, Punjab. Of these healthcare staff who bought the primary dose, simply 2,010 acquired second dose until Tuesday. Punjab began administering second dose to healthcare staff (who bought the primary dose) from Monday.
Till now, Punjab has administered Covid vaccine to a complete of 1,09,778 beneficiaries (healthcare and frontline staff mixed), solely.
Senior well being officers in Punjab say that the one purpose they will underline for the low vaccination numbers within the state was ‘hesitancy’ among the many healthcare and frontline staff.

“Hesitancy and apprehensions regarding the vaccine… even among the healthcare workers, is probably the only reason for the low response in Punjab. We are trying our best to encourage healthcare and frontline workers to shun hesitancy and get themselves vaccinated but then we can say only till a limit. It is one’s personal choice and decision,” mentioned Dr GB Singh. He added that the response from the frontline staff was not any higher than healthcare staff. “We can only say that it is the hesitancy and apprehensions that are not letting employees come forward and get themselves vaccinated,” he mentioned.
Dr Rajiv Bhaskar, nodal officer for Covid, Punjab, mentioned that the variety of healthcare staff who registered for vaccination has elevated from 1.74 lakh to 2.04 lakh and thus the deadline for them to get first dose has been prolonged to February 19. “The second phase of vaccination for frontline workers is till March 5. We are trying to encourage health workers, both in government as well as private sector, to get vaccinated,” mentioned Dr Bhaskar.

As per the info that was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoH&FW) Tuesday, 85.16 lakh doses of Covid vaccine have been administered throughout the nation of which Punjab has achieved 1.07 lakh doses solely.
This is manner lower than a number of different states and UTs which have carried out higher than Punjab, together with Andhra Pradesh (3.69 lakh), Assam (1.31 lakh), Bihar (4.94 lakh), Chhattisgarh (2.74 lakh), Delhi (1.93 lakh), Gujarat (6.97 lakh), J&Okay (1.47 lakh), Jharkhand (2.20 lakh), Karnataka (5.10 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (5.67 lakh), Maharashtra (6.96 lakh), Odisha (4.17 lakh), Rajasthan (6.12 lakh), Uttar Pradesh (9.11 lakh) and West Bengal (5.32 lakh).
Among Punjab’s neighboring states- Haryana too has achieved 2 lakh doses (greater than Punjab), whereas Himachal Pradesh has achieved 81,957 doses (lower than Punjab). UT Chandigarh has administered 9,356 doses solely, as per the MoH&FW information.
A complete of 33,099 frontline staff bought vaccinated in Punjab until Tuesday of 1.80 lakh registered (18.33 per cent). Dr Bhaskar mentioned that the variety of frontline staff would possibly go up with the registrations for it nonetheless ongoing.

On the states resembling Bihar, UP, Gujarat, Delhi, MP, Haryana and so forth performing higher than Punjab, Dr GB Singh mentioned, “Hesitation is the only reason I can pinpoint.. Sometimes it is even more difficult to convince educated persons regarding something very new like Covid vaccine.”