PATNA: In the past five days since the second phase of
Covid-19 vaccination for frontline workers was rolled out across the state, an average of 57.61% of the targeted beneficiaries have taken the shot, which is nearly 4% more than the percentage of healthcare workers vaccinated in the first five days of the launch of the first phase.
Explaining the reason behind the jump, the state health department special secretary,
Manoj Kumar, said now there are more session sites compared to the time when the immunization drive was launched and several glitches have since been resolved.
“We are working in full capacity,” he added. Bihar had topped among all states in term of the percentage of healthcare workers vaccinated in the first phase.
However, the health department’s task has not become easy yet. Wednesday mid-night was the deadline of registration for FLWs and till late evening 2.23 lakh had got themselves registered. The frontline workers include employees associated with the
home department personnel, urban development and housing department,
district administration,
revenue department and
Panchayati Raj institutions.
As per the state health society, 39,510 registered FLWs got vaccinated till Wednesday, and they account for 17.7% of the registered beneficiaries. Officials said 20 to 25 days are required to vaccinate all them. To speed up the work, the health department is focusing on specific departments each day.
Manoj said, “On Thursday and Friday, special session sites for personnel of the
home department will be created. A letter has been issued by the home department in this regard too. On Monday and Tuesday, we will focus on urban development and housing department, revenue and Panchayati Raj. Our target is to complete this phase in a week.”
Meanwhile, 64 new Covid-19 cases were registered on Wednesday, taking the tally to 2,61,511. Officially, two deaths were reported after which the toll reached 1,520. With 2,59,234 recoveries so far, there are 755 active cases. Recovery rate has reached 99.13%.
One death each was reported from Bhojpur and Nawada, taking the toll to 48 and 25 respectively.
No Covid-19 positive patient was admitted at AIIMS-Patna on Wednesday and the hospital’s nodal in charge Dr Sanjeev Kumar said it had happened for the first time since they started admitting Covod-19 positive patients.
One death was reported from there, and the deceased was a 66-year-old female of Lohanipur locality.