No person above 18 should be deprived of ‘booster dose’: CM Yogi

New Delhi: Stating that vaccinating all eligible children at the earliest is a priority for his government, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has instructed the concerned authorities to further give pace to the ongoing vaccination drive for the children aged 12-14, and ensure abundant availability of vaccines.

While reviewing the Covid-19 situation in the state with senior officials on Tuesday, Yogi Adityanath said, “Many children in the age group of 12 to 14 are yet to take the vaccine. There is a need to ramp up the vaccination drive for them. Abundant availability of vaccines is present in the state and should be ensured for future requirements.”

He further directed the concerned authorities to undertake awareness campaigns regarding the importance of booster doses, encourage every individual above 18 years of age to take the booster dose and about the vaccination centres administering booster shots.

Standing on the top, the state of Uttar Pradesh has so far given out over 32,10,86,485 total vaccine doses. Out of these, as many as 17,30,37,190 are first doses, while as many as 14,50,83,297 individuals are fully vaccinated.

So far, over 2,36,01,148 children in the age group of 15-17 and over 77,68,203 children in the age group of 12-14 have been administered vaccine doses in the state.

Committed to providing additional protection cover to the priority group, Uttar Pradesh started administering booster shots (precaution dose) to the frontline and healthcare workers as well as senior citizens from January 10. Nearly 30 lakh ‘precaution doses’ have been administered in the state so far.

In terms of percentage, over 90.53 per cent of the adult population is fully vaccinated and 100 percent have received one vaccine dose.

In the age category of 15-17, over 96 percent of the children have received at least one dose of the vaccine. While over 70 percent in this age category is fully vaccinated.

At present, the total number of active cases in the state is 1024, which has been witnessing a consistent decline since the past few days. The Chief Minister has made usage of face masks mandatory in public places in districts with higher positivity rates.