GURUGRAM: The first day of 24x7 and evening Covid-19 vaccinations in the city witnessed a low turnout. The six round-the-clock session sites that started inoculations on Monday gave jabs to only 24 persons at night — four didn’t get even a single recipient. The 13 session sites which carried out the evening vaccination drive (5pm-9pm) were able to vaccinate just 195 recipients. Hospitals are hopeful that turnout will increase in the coming days.
The health department said that they are planning to observe the response to night session sites for a week and may shut down the night vaccination drive if the turnout remains low. “We are planning to conduct activities to spread information and motivate recipients. We will also involve the RWAs in spreading awareness. We will discuss the low turnout in night session sites in the district task force meeting and discontinue it if this trend continues,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer, Gurugram.
Private hospitals, meanwhile, said the drive has just begun and expect turnout to gain pace soon. Dr Anjali Kaul, medical superintendent of Artemis Hospital, said: “We have just started 24x7 sessions from Monday. We are witnessing low turnout but are motivating people. The turnout will soon pick up.”
Arpita Mukherjee, vice-president (operations) and head of Max Super Speciality Hospital, Gurugram, added: “We have started 24x7 vaccinations. We were giving jabs to 250 recipients daily last week, but in the last two days, we administered the vaccine to around 400 persons daily. About 100 recipients come between 5pm and 10pm and 40-50 recipients between 7am and 8am. Recipients are appreciating the flexible walk-in slots and convenience of getting the jabs without waiting.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the 12th day of the third phase of Covid vaccination drive in Gurugram, 4,504 recipients got jabs. This included 3,452 people above the age of 60 years and 1,052 recipients aged between 45 and 59 years with comorbidities. Till Tuesday, 45,665 people over the age of 60 got their first jabs. In contrast, only 6,639 recipients with comorbid conditions have been administered the Covid-19 vaccine. As many as 98 session sites — 39 in government set up and 54 in private hospitals — were set up in Gurugram on Tuesday. A total of 504 health care workers and 933 frontline workers also got vaccinated on the day.