Mission June: UP govt meets target of 1 crore vaccines 6 days before deadline

The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday announced that it has achieved the target of giving 1 crore Covid vaccine doses in just 24 days – six days before its deadline – under the state’s “Mission June” campaign.

“The state government accomplished the goal of vaccinating more than 8 lakh people on Thursday, taking the cumulative doses to over 2.88 crore,” said a spokesperson. “From July, the UP government has been eyeing the next big target to administer around 10 lakh doses a day and achieving the landmark of 10 crore doses by August-end,” added the spokesperson.

Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), Information, Navneet Sehgal said the drive was organised on the directions of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath to cover the maximum number of people.

“UP has set a new record by administering one crore doses a week before the stipulated time,” Sehgal said. He added there was no wastage of Covid vaccine doses during the mega drive.

The number of vaccines being administered in a day is around 8 lakh, the government said.

“The change in Centre’s policy, announcing that vaccines will now be free for all, contributed to the spike in vaccinations in the state. In the last four days, the state administered over 30 lakh doses of anti-Covid vaccine,” said the spokesperson.

“Under the world’s largest free vaccination drive, vaccination pace in Uttar Pradesh is the highest in the country, leaving behind Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Kerala among others,” the spokesperson added.

“It was expected that the state would achieve the target by the end of this month. But with the government’s efforts made on a war footing, the target was achieved within a decent time,” added the spokesperson.

The government is focused on the steep target ostensibly to prevent a possible third wave through widespread vaccinations.

A statement issued by the government said to reach the target of 10 crore doses, the government has adopted the Cluster Approach Strategy. “The entire population will be divided into clusters. Focusing on rural areas, over 97,000 revenue villages of all the development blocks in the state will be divided into clusters. In each revenue village, a mobilisation team will be constituted with the Gram Pradhan, Lekhpal, ASHA and Anganwadi workers, teachers of primary school, Panchayat Secretary and Yuvak/Mahila Mangal Dal. The cluster mobilisation teams will start its awareness drive three days prior to the pilot. Two quick response teams will be deployed at the centres during the cluster vaccination to manage any kind of adverse situations,” said the statement.