Even as the efforts to vaccinate Haryana’s population against COVID-19 has stepped up amid the third wave of infections, Nuh district continues to lag behind state’s inoculation targets.
While two districts—Ambala and Gurugram—have managed to achieve 100 percent vaccination target by inoculating its eligible population with both doses, Nuh – which has the dubious distinction of country’s most backward district, continues to witness vaccination hesitancy.
According to the data of Health Department, Haryana till Tuesday evening, 68 percent of Nuh’s eligible population was administered the first dose while only 26 percent have received both doses of COVID vaccination. Nuh is the only district in the state where less than 70 percent eligible population have been inoculated with the first vaccine dose while less than 30 percent are fully vaccinated.
A total of 11 districts out of total 22 have administered at least one dose of COVID vaccine to the eligible population. These included Ambala, Charkhi Dadri, Faridabad, Gurugram, Jhajjar, Kaithal, Panchkula, Panipat, Rewari, Rohtak and Sonipat.
As far as cumulative vaccine coverage is concerned, Haryana has managed to vaccinate 102 percent eligible population (including outsiders and excluding 15-18 years age group) with the first dose and around 76 percent with both doses. A total of 3.72 crore doses of vaccination were administered to the state’s population as on January 11.
Only 13 percent eligible children (15-18 years), lowest in the state, have so far got the first dose of vaccine in Nuh district.
In the vulnerable population in the age group of 60 years and above, 82400 have been administered with the first dose while only 36228 of them have received their second dose of vaccine in Nuh district. Similarly in the age group of 45-60 years, 1.09 lakh have received their first dose while only 48847 have received their second dose of vaccination in the district.
Notably, the State Government had set a target to inoculate its entire population with the first dose by December 2021 but the target could not be achieved due to low vaccination coverage in few districts.
The laggard districts in terms of administering the first dose are Nuh with 68 percent vaccination coverage, Palwal with 86 percent and Jind with 87 percent.
In the second dose, the bottom districts are Jind (26 percent coverage), Palwal (58 percent), Jind (58 percent), Fatehabad (58 percent).
Gurugram, which is the worst affected district due to the COVID-19, tops the list in vaccination drive with first dose coverage of 136 percent (including population of outsiders) and second dose coverage of 112 percent.
To boost vaccine coverage across Haryana, the State Government had declared public places out of bounds for people not fully vaccinated from January 1 onwards.