Noida/Ghaziabad: On the second day for the third phase of the vaccination drive, both districts saw a higher turnout compared to March 4 and Noida even managed to go past its daily target of 7,000. The turnout was more than double compared to the first day.
While about 4,000 people took the vaccine in Noida on Thursday, on Friday, the number went up to 8,926. Officials said that the district can currently vaccinate more than 15,000 people a day.
While 4,580 people took the jabs at government centres, 3,065 turned up at private facilities on Friday. Apart from that 2,000 people took their second dose from different centres.
In Ghaziabad, 4,023 people took the jabs on Friday. In addition to that, 2,220 people got their second dose, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey said. Of the 4,023 people who took the jabs, 1,817 visited government centres and 2,206 people paid for the vaccines at private facilities. The district’s target was to vaccinate 6,000 people.
Officials said that of the 4,023 people, 271 were above 45 years of age with comorbidities, while the rest were above 60.
The drive was conducted at 14 government and 26 private facilities in Noida. In Ghaziabad, 24 government centres and 20 private hospitals were involved in the process. Although minor glitches were reported from some places, officials said the process wasmostly smooth.
“Some people registered online for a particular centre but reached a different one. There were some problems with the portal too. For all such cases, the entries were recorded as walk-ins,” said Dr Neeraj Tyagi, district immunisation officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.
In Noida, the District Command Hospital (Sector 30) set up an additional booth on the ground floor of the building for the differently-abled. At private facilities, while most were walk-in registrations on Thursday, on Friday, many came after online registrations. “We vaccinated 670 people on Friday. Of them, 600 were senior citizens and the rest were health workers from our hospital who got their second dose. Most of the third phase recipients came after online registrations. We will request the district health department to allow more session sites for us as we have a capacity to vaccinate 3,000 people per day,” said Viswabandhu Joshi from Kailash Hospital, Noida.
At Yatharth, 150 people took the shots at two session sites in the Greater Noida branch and over 150 senior citizens were vaccinated in the Noida branch.
“About 70% were online registrations while 30% were walk-ins,” said Dr Sunil Kumar, medical superintendent, Yatharth Hospital, Noida.
Metro Hospital at Sector 12 vaccinated 89 people. Some private hospitals like Fortis (Sector 62) opted for a token system for better crowd management.
On Saturday, only two Noida hospitals will administer the shots, GIMS, Greater Noida, and District Combined Hospital, Sector 30. In Ghaziabad, Sooraj Pal Arya, a 101-year-old freedom fighter, took the shot at Atlanta MediWorld in Vasundhara. His wife, son and daughter-in-law also took vaccines.
On Saturday, among the government facilities, the District Combined Hospital would be administering the shots. On Friday, some people had trouble reaching the vaccination centre on the first floor of the District Combined Hospital, which had a target to vaccinate 300 people.
Dr Sanjay Teotia, the chief medical superintendent of the hospital, said that the ground floor was not available because the out-patient department runs from there. He said that two wheelchairs were provided for those who had trouble reaching the vaccine centre.