Ghaziabad: Thursday morning was marked by long queues at
vaccination centres in the city, but the rush dwindled as the day passed. By the end of the day, Ghaziabad had achieved only 55% of its first day’s target of inoculating 4,500 eligible recipients in the third phase.
As most people preferred to walk in, the queues started growing longer and recipients had to wait at least 2-3 hours for their turn. The token system, which was announced by the health department earlier, was also missing at most centres.
On Thursday, the district administration had a target to vaccinate 7,900 people, of whom 3,550 were those who were to get their second dose. Of the remaining 4,500 recipients of the third phase, only 2,426 people got the jabs. About 27% of these recipients had pre-registration.
So far, more than 45,000 people in the district have registered themselves for the vaccine in the third phase. Officials are planning to inoculate 93,480 people by the end of this month.
The huge rush of recipients was mostly at the urban centres. At the District Combined Hospital, there was a minor scuffle among those in the queue. Chief medical superintendent Sanjay Teotia was in the centre of a small protest when he went to the hospital to see arrangements. “Many people took me as one of the recipients and started questioning me. I told them I had come to oversee the arrangements, but to no avail,” he said.
Many of the elderly recipients faced inconvenience reaching the spot. Rajkumar Verma, a resident of Shastri Nagar, had come with his father Hukum Chand Verma (93) to get him vaccinated. “I had a lot of difficulty to take my father to the vaccination centre on a wheelchair,” he said. The vaccine centre at the Combined Hospital is on the first floor.
However, the rush at vaccine centres was relatively less in rural areas.