The ongoing festive season coupled with several wedding ceremonies has marred the State’s plans of administering at least three lakh Covid-19 vaccine jabs daily in the first half of November, officials spearheading the immunisation drive said on Tuesday, claiming that the State found it hard to achieve even 50 per cent of the daily vaccination targets during this period.
In mid-October, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Arun Kumar Singh, in a letter to all the concerned officials, stated that the state has set a target of administering at least 3 lakh Covid-19 vaccines daily. Singh also directed officials to make arrangements for speeding up the vaccination process across the state and encouraging more people to get vaccinated.
However, as per figures compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM), Jharkhand managed to vaccinate about 1 lakh residents daily on an average since November 1.
“People usually showed reluctance to get vaccinated ahead of festivals or wedding ceremonies,” said a National Health Mission (NHM) official leading the Covid-19 vaccination in the State. “Many beneficiaries we contacted were willing to get vaccinated only after Christmas,” he added, requesting not to be named.
As per Government data, of the 2.41 crore vaccine beneficiaries in the State about 64.94 per cent have received at least one dose of vaccine, while about 28.87 per cent of the vaccine beneficiaries have also received the second jab.
Officials of at least eight Jharkhand districts had to attend a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 3 as these districts failed to administer the first dose of vaccine to 60 per cent of the eligible beneficiaries.
Out of these eight districts, only two managed to administer the first dose of vaccine to over 60 per cent of the eligible population by Tuesday, revealed Government data.
The eight districts were Deoghar, Garwah, Giridih, Godda, Latehar, Pakur, Sahebganj and West Singhbhum. By Tuesday, Godda partially vaccinated 61.41 per cent of beneficiaries, while Pakur administered the first dose of vaccine to 65.60 per cent of beneficiaries.