The vaccination drive got a much-needed impetus with Prakasam District Collector Pola Bhaskar taking the jab in Ongole on Friday.
The District Collector and his wife P. Amaravati took the vaccine at the Government General Hospital. As many as 3,000 people took the vaccine till late in the evening, said Prakasam District Medical and Health Officer P.R atnavalli overseeing the vaccination drive across 30 session sites. About 1.96 lakh persons have been vaccinated so far in the district.
Drive to be ramped up in urban areas
“We have taken all steps to ratchet up the vaccination drive from Saturday in all the urban and rural public health centres by focussing on village and ward secretariats,” she said, adding that they were making sure that there was no wastage by vaccinating 10 persons at a time.
Meanwhile, one person succumed to the infection on Friday taking the toll to 583 in the district, where 62 persons tested positive for the disease in a span of 24 hours, according to a medical bulletin released by the State government.
In neighbouring SPSR Nellore district, 118 persons got infected.
With this, the number of active cases shot up to 830 in South Coastal Andhra Pradesh including 453 in SPSR Nellore district.