In a good news to State amidst surge in corona cases, Jharkhand on Tuesday crossed the 3 crore vaccination target. State Health Minister Banna Gupta sharing the news in his tweet said that the State has crossed 3 crore vaccination target.
Gupta tweeted, ‘amidst increasing infection of corona in the State, there is good news that Jharkhand has crossed the mark of 3 crore vaccination. 3 crore 52 thousand 183 doses have been administered which includes both the (1st and 2nd doses) of corona in the state. Out of these, the first dose is 1 crore 86 lakh 81 thousand 412 and the second dose is 1 crore 13 lakh 70 thousand 771.’
The Health minister at the same time also appealed to the people not to be panicked, urging people for vaccination. He said those who have not taken even a single dose of corona vaccines, should immediately reach the nearest vaccination centre set by the government and get the first dose of vaccines, followed by which they should also take the second dose of vaccines.
Sources said that the vaccination process in Jharkhand in the initial phase was slow, but later it gained momentum. The vaccination process which started in February/March crossed 1 crore target on August 5. But in the next two months the state government gave momentum to vaccination, with the State achieving the target of 2 crore vaccination on October 24. The target of double dose vaccination crossed the 1 crore mark on December 20 and in the next 13 days the state crossed the target of 3 crore vaccination.
According to the Health Minister, the government has achieved this figure in 11 months and 17 days, whereas in the initial days, less quantity of medicine was being provided to Jharkhand.
Sources said that the pace of vaccination was achieved after the state health department set a January 15 target for complete vaccination. Last month Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Arun Kumar Singh directed Deputy Commissioners to achieve the target. As per the directive, meeting of district level Covid 19 vaccination task force was conducted under chairmanship of concerned deputy commissioners involving Civil Surgeons, district election officers, district nodal officers for Covid (administration), DRCHOs, BDOs, MO-ICs, SMOs, of WHO and other stakeholders like district social welfare officers, district education officers, municipal officers etc.
The Additional Chief Secretary had also directed for mapping of blocks, panchayats, villages to be done by each district to assess the performance for the coverage of first dose against the target eligible population prior to commencement of Maha Abhiyan.