Ranchi: Although Jharkhand is conducting a Covid vaccination drive, the state health department has ensured regular immunization drives are not affected, which take place on Thursdays and Saturdays.
Talking to TOI, nodal officer of the vaccination programme in the state Dr Ajit Prasad said, “Our routine immunization hasn’t stopped amid the Covid-19 vaccination drive. We have instructed all our officials and on-ground staff that the routine immunizations shouldn’t be affected and to ensure they are carried out as per schedule.”
Prasad said, “Currently, we are vaccinating beneficiaries for 11 diseases — tuberculosis, polio, measles, rubella, tetanus, hepatitis-B, meningitis, whooping cough, diphtheria, diarrhoea and Japanese encephalitis. Beneficiaries are selected after proper medical examination and are provided a schedule of the vaccination and are allotted centres.”
The routine immunization programme has more than 38,000 anganwadi centres as vaccination centres where sahiyas and ANMs conduct the process of routine immunization.
About the total number of beneficiaries enrolled under the routine immunization programme, Dr Prasad said, “More than 8.5 lakh beneficiaries are enrolled for different inoculation drives under which they are vaccinated at different anganwadi centres and healthcare centres. We plan the vaccination drive in a manner in which all 38,000 centres are included as centres every month in a rotational basis.”
As the Covid-19 vaccination drive will continue for months now, experts believe curiosity among people will fade with time and it will be treated on par with other vaccination drives. “We will celebrate National Immunization Day on January 31 and special polio drives will continue as per the findings of surveillance reports. So, people shouldn’t reflect any hesitancy in taking the vaccine and should turn up in large numbers,” said state IDSP head Dr Praveen Karn.