Gurgaon: The city saw its highest turnout on the 15th day of Phase 3 of the Covid-19 vaccination drive for the 60-plus population and those aged above 45 with comorbidities on Monday, with 21,926 recipients — 17,794 in the first category and 4,132 in the second — getting their first doses. Prior to this, the highest turnout in this phase had been 9,190.
The significant jump in the numbers was largely due to a big push by government facilities to create more session sites and better coverage of rural areas. As many as 171 session sites — 114 in government set-ups and 57 in private hospitals — were created on Monday with an aim to inoculate 10,000 recipients. Of the total 21,926 recipients, 17,542 got their jabs at government sites while only 4,384 got their doses at private ones.
So far, 72,834 people over the age of 60 and 13,937 people between 45 and 59 years of age with comorbidities have been administered the vaccine in Gurgaon. The latest turnout means the city has inched closer to the halfway mark of its Phase 3 target of 1.5 lakh.
While a dry run had been conducted in a few societies over the weekend, Monday was the first time that the city set up vaccination camps in societies and condominiums. Private hospitals set up separate camps at Cyber City and DLF-5 as well as a joint one for M3M, Tulip and BPTP Astaire Gardens in Sector 70. The health department set up its camps in Ridgewood Society, The Villas in DLF-2, Club5 DLF, sectors 46, 47, 56 and 4, Chetana Public School, Marigold School, Children Paradise School and BR Memorial School. Camps were also conducted by the department in panchayat bhawans, chaupals and gram sachiwalaya.
Gurgaon chief medical officer Virender Yadav said the health department had discussed the matter of low turnouts with private hospitals and the district administration. “We had a three-fold increase in the number of session sites on Monday to improve the turnout in government set-ups. Private hospitals will also be asked to create more session sites as we have observed that vaccination is low in those,” he said.
A doctor from a leading private hospital said that turnout will improve slowly. “We are following all protocols at our camps in the condominiums. We will set up more camps from Tuesday. As the concept is new, the turnout is low at present,” the doctor said.
Meanwhile, 1,068 healthcare workers and 2,011 frontline workers also got vaccinated on Monday, taking their total numbers to 46,838 and 27,861, respectively. So far, 1,61,470 people in the city have been inoculated, said Yadav.