Cluster plan from July 1 to help cover more vaccine recipients

Prayagraj: Vaccine recipients on Tuesday had to return without getting a jab in trans-Ganga and trans-Yamuna pockets of the district due to the unavailability of vaccines. The vaccination exercise was taken up at 14 sites in the city areas only on Tuesday. Officials of the health department informed that vaccination exercise against Covid would not be held at community health centres (CHCs) in rural areas on Wednesday.
Officials, however, claimed that a cluster plan meant to cover more and more recipients in rural and urban areas would be taken up in the district from July 1. On Tuesday, recipients who arrived at rural and semi urban-based vaccination centres returned empty-handed due to the non-availability of vaccines. Recipients approached the health staff concerned to know about the vaccination dates and the staff assured them that they would be covered under the cluster plan. However, 14 vaccination sites that were opened in the city on Tuesday witnessed a huge rush of recipients. As many as 8,40,098 Covid vaccine shots were administered to recipients of all age groups, that is, those aged above 18 years, till June 28. While 7,02,556 beneficiaries have taken the first dose, 1,37,542 recipients have also received the second dose. A total of 10,470 vaccine shots were administered to people of all age groups in the past 24 hours, which included 6829 recipients of the first dose and 3,641 of the second shot, he said.
Meanwhile, officials of the health department are focusing on a cluster plan and deployed over 300 health teams to cover each village, block and ward of the district from June 1. The district has been divided into 216 clusters. As around 60 per cent of the eligible recipients stay in rural areas, more health teams have been pressed into service in rural pockets. With a cluster plan to be launched from July 1, at least 10 -12 additional teams would be roped to achieve the target. Officials have set a target of administering around 39.87 lakh beneficiaries, including 27 lakh recipients aged between 18 and 44 and 12.87 lakh beneficiaries aged over 45.