Vaccination target revised, 1.8 lakh more added to list

Vadodara: The state government has revised the target for Covid-19 vaccination in the city and increased it significantly. The initial target of vaccination had raised eyebrows as it was much lower than the number of voters in the city.
The initial official vaccination target for the Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) limits stood at 13,15,477. Going by this, the city has already achieved over 100% first dose vaccination as till Friday 13,29,562 persons had got the first dose. At the other end, 8,27,215 persons have been fully vaccinated so far.
The initial target given to VMC was way off the mark as the city actually has 14,46,212 voters as per the data for the last civic polls. Officials say that this is a fair estimate of those eligible for vaccination. Even this is not an exact figure as many voters may not be staying in the city and many residents of the city may be voters elsewhere.
“The target has been revised keeping in mind various factors. It may not be an exact number, but is a fair estimation. Our attempt has to be nearing that number as much as possible,” said VMC’s medical officer (health) Dr Devesh Patel.
A source in the health department pointed out that there were bound to be anomalies in the number of persons vaccinated in the city too. “Many who are not residents or voters of the city took jabs here as they were working in the city when the drive began. Many from the nearby rural areas took jabs here as the vaccination drive started in the city before being rolled out in villages.
“Also, many from the city took jabs elsewhere when it was difficult to book slots in the city,” said the source. He added that there were pockets that were added to VMC limits earlier, but were still being handled by the district panchayat’s health department. Patel pointed out that many have received the second dose too. With a high number of second doses being administered as compared to the first dose, it is expected that the percentage coverage of the second dose will also improve significantly in the coming day.