PANAJI: The response for the new phase of
vaccination that was opened for 45-years-old and above on Thursday, was less than satisfactory as 2,113 people received their first shot of vaccine on the first day.
To give a push to the drive,
health services will conduct vaccinations throughout April, including on Sundays.
“The government has given instructions that we conduct vaccination on all days and we will follow them. We are attempting to have vaccinations on all 30 days this month. Even tomorrow (Good Friday), all our centres will have a vaccination,” said Dr Rajendra Borkar, district immunisation officer.
Borkar said that though people’s response on the first day was not very encouraging, they expect to see an improvement in the next few days.
“We will have a better response from tomorrow. I presume today being the first day, not many people came to take a vaccine. Besides, people are in a festive mood, while some are still unaware that they have to get vaccinated,” he said.
Borkar said that they want to administer 5,000 doses a day in order to finish their target of vaccinating 3 lakh people (45 plus and above) in 59 days. On Thursday, 4,398 doses were administered to people of all categories of healthcare workers (HCW), frontline workers (FLW), 60-plus, and those who are 45-59 years old.
To hasten the speed of vaccination, the health services will hold vaccination sessions in the industrial estates across the state. As of Thursday, 1,23,601 doses were administered, including 10,563 HCWs who were vaccinated with both doses.
The number of senior citizens who have been fully vaccinated till Thursday was 2,552. The health services have a mammoth task of covering 1.5 lakh senior citizens. “Response from this category (senior citizens) has been lukewarm. I don’t see a significant change in people’s attitude though may have their own justification for refraining from getting a vaccine shot,” he said.
The vaccination sessions in the state are held at 37 government facilities and 25 private hospitals.