New Delhi: As many states curtail vaccinations claiming dose shortages amid a record surge in coronavirus infections, the UP Government has worked on war footing to ensure the vaccination drive reaches the majority of its population. On Friday, CM Yogi announced the expansion of vaccination drive to all the divisional headquarters of Uttar Pradesh. From Monday, vaccination for 18+ will be conducted in 23 districts of the state including 18 divisional headquarters.
“At present, people in the 18-44 age group are getting vaccinated in 18 districts of UP. Moving on to the next phase, the 18+ age group should also be administered doses at all the divisional headquarters of the state from next Monday”, said CM Yogi while addressing a high level COVID review meeting.
Jabs for 18-44 age group in 23 districts from Monday
The COVID-19 vaccination drive for the 18-44 years’ age group has been suspended in Delhi, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Karnataka. On the contrary, Uttar Pradesh being the most populous state is conducting aggressive vaccination to counter the pandemic surge under the supervision of Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.
The 18 divisional headquarters include Agra, Aligarh, Prayagraj, Azamgarh, Bareilly, Basti, Chitrakoot, Gonda, Ayodhya , Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Kanpur, Lucknow, Meerut, Mirzapur, Moradabad, Saharanpur and Varanasi. Along with the divisional headquarters, the vaccine will be administered in Firozabad, Mathura-Vrindavan, Shahjahanpur, Gautambudhnagar and Ghaziabad.
Vaccination drive for 18+ is already running in 17 municipal corporations and Gautam Buddh Nagar area of the state. Now, it will be conducted in total 23 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Experts said that quickly vaccinating all adults was crucial to fighting the devastating surge of infections. Emerging as a leader in terms of Covid Vaccination, the state has so far administered as many as 1,45,83,503 doses of vaccine. Of these, 1,14,67,023 have received their first doses and around 31,16,480 got their second doses of vaccine. Till now, a total of 3,15,532 doses have been administered to people above 18 years’ age bracket. CM Yogi has been consistently working to ramp up the vaccination drive in the state.
UP takes lead, administers 1,45,83,503 vaccine doses till date
Ensuring the safety of people, “While deciding on the vaccine center, keep in mind that there is an open space for the waiting room at the site, so as to maintain social distancing”, instructed the CM
Uttar Pradesh government has been leaving no stone unturned to meet the demand of vaccine doses in the state. On the other hand, due to shortage of coronavirus vaccine in Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Rajasthan, vaccination drive is affected because the government there has been blaming the crunch in supply rather than formulating a concrete plan for vaccination.
Moving rapidly towards immunising maximum people, Uttar Pradesh under CM Yogi has become the first state to start the third phase of the Covid-19 vaccination drive to inoculate people above 18 years of age.
First state to make advance payment for vaccine doses
The state government is making all necessary arrangements to ensure there is no budgetary constraint in procuring vaccines. In fact, the Uttar Pradesh government has made advance payment to the vaccine manufacturers and became the first state to make such a move.
The state government had already placed orders for the supply of one crore Covid vaccine doses —50 lakh doses from Hyderabad-based Bharat Biotech International Limited that manufactures Covaxin and 50 lakh doses from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India that makes Covishield.
The state government had received 3.50 lakh doses of Covishield from SII and 1.50 lakh doses of Covaxin from Bharat Biotech so far. The state will get the required vaccine doses from both the companies soon.
Global Tender for 40 million vaccine doses
The state government had floated a global tender for 40 million of vaccine doses earlier this month to fulfil its huge requirements of vaccine doses. The Uttar Pradesh government has also opened communication channels with prospective suppliers to ensure quick delivery of Covid-19 vaccines to boost the inoculation drive for the 18-44 years’ age group as well as those above 45 years. Six vaccine manufacturers attended a pre-bid meeting convened by Uttar Pradesh on Wednesday to discuss procurement of 40 million Covid-19 jabs
Uttar Pradesh is estimated to spend up to 100 billion rupees to buy Covid-19 shots. The state government held early talks this week with companies such as Pfizer and the local partner of the maker of Russia’s Sputnik V.
The second wave of COVID pandemic has put a heavy burden on the healthcare systems across the country and in such grim times the Uttar Pradesh government is making all efforts to overcome this situation boosting the vaccination drive.
