As many as 914 senior citizens, including 181 from Ranchi and 129 from Bokaro, were administered the first dose of Covishield vaccine in Jharkhand on Monday, the first day of the immunization programme for people above the age of 60 years, data compiled by the National Health Mission (NHM) highlighted.
At least 126 people above the age of 45 years and suffering from some or the other comorbid condition also got the vaccine jab in the state on the day, a report released by the NHM stated, further highlighting that as many as 44 of the beneficiaries were from Bokaro and only 18 from Ranchi.
As per government data, no senior citizen turned up for the vaccination in Khunti district, while at least 11 of 24 district did not administer even a single middle-aged beneficiary with comorbid conditions. Despite boasting one of the important cities in Jharkhand, East Singhbhum administered the vaccine to only 33 senior citizens and three people above the age of 45 years.
The government aims to inoculate around 37 lakh senior citizens and people with comorbidities in the second phase of the vaccination in Jharkhand, an official from the NHM said. He added that the number of senior citizens getting vaccinated daily will increase gradually as more empaneled hospitals start administering the vaccine jabs in Jharkhand.
The vaccination programme in Jharkhand was suspended on Saturday and Sunday as healthcare workers in private hospitals were being trained on these days, officials said. On Monday, the state achieved only 21 per cent of its target for vaccination of healthcare workers and frontline workers by inoculating only 3826 of the over 18,000 registered beneficiaries, revealed government data.
Ranchi achieved only 15 per cent of its vaccination target for healthcare workers and frontline workers on the day, while Lohardaga was the worst performer with only 7 per cent target achieved. Bokaro performed the best even in vaccinating healthcare workers and frontline workers. The district vaccinated 353 beneficiaries and achieved 67 per cent of its target.
The registration for vaccination of senior citizens and middle-aged people with comorbid conditions was done through the Co-Win 2.0 app in most of the hospitals, but beneficiaries also had the choice to register in person or over phone.
So far, the state has administered the first dose of the vaccine to 2,95,242 people and the second dose to 27,911 people, as per government data. On Monday, as many as 4154 of 10257 beneficiaries were administered the second dose of the vaccine in Jharkhand. Jharkhand has so far achieved 81 per cent of its target for the first dose of vaccine and 68 per cent of target for the second dose.