All 45+ in 35 villages have taken first shot

Nagpur: In a major milestone in Covid vaccination programme for the zilla parishad (ZP), all people above 45 years have taken the first dose in 35 villages of Nagpur district.
ZP CEO Yogesh Kumbhejkar told TOI that this was possible due to the ‘vaccination at your village’ drive. “Health department officials, public representatives, anganwadi sevikas and others identified the eligible people. We want to ensure all 18+ in the rural areas are full vaccinated at the earliest,” he added.
Kumbhejkar said that the resumption of vaccination of the 18-44 years age group helped in removing hesitancy some 45+. “There is great enthusiasm in 18-44 years age group. They are bringing their elders and ensuring vaccination of the entire family. Also, people who are yet to take the jab are turning up on seeing the young people,” he said.
Awareness programmes explaining the importance of vaccination and also announcing the names of prominent people who have taken the jab helped.
On June 11, the number of villages where all 45-plus had taken the first dose stood at 13. There are around 1,700 villages in 13 tehsils of Nagpur district.
Vaccination of 60-plus and 45-plus with comorbidities started on March 1 and for everyone above 45 on April 1.
Among the 35 villages, seven — the highest — are from Katol tehsil. There are five each in Hingna, Kuhi and Parseoni, 4 each in Bhiwapur and Mauda, two in Narkhed and one each in Kalmeshwar, Kamptee and Saoner.
As the city has received sufficient doses, vaccination will continue in all centres of the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday. 16,320 people took the jab in the NMC’s centres on Wednesday. 369 people were vaccinated in 27 private centres. Thus, 16,689 people took the jab in the city on Wednesday.
200 vaccination special vans
District guardian minister Nitin Raut has facilitated 200 special vaccination vans to 120 tehsils in 11 districts of Vidarbha. CM Uddhav Thackeray, deputy CM Ajit Pawar, Raut and others will dedicate these vans to people on August 20 and will launch ‘Mission Vaccination’ campaign. Raut has provided these vans from CSR funds of Rs 25 crore of Mahatransco.
These vans will be engaged in holding special camps of vaccination in localities in urban areas and villages in rural areas. Also, these vans will be utilized for inoculation of bedridden people, pregnant, lactating women, senior citizens among others.