Second dose coverage stands at 57% in Mysuru : Rashtra News
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Health authorities plan to step up vaccination drives, plan to jab 10,000 a day to achieve 90 percent target by year-end
As the coverage of second dose of COVID-19 vaccination remains around 57 per cent in Mysuru district and nearly 1.90 lakh people are due for their second dose, the health authorities here are now planning to step up their vaccination campaign. They have set themselves a target of vaccinating at least 10,000 people every day for achieving 90 per cent second dose coverage at least by December-end.
Mysuru stands sixth in the State in administration of the second dose. As many as 13 lakh people had received their second dose. The coverage, however, saw a drop in the last few days and one of the reasons cited was heavy rains with the district and particularly Mysuru city in the grip of incessant downpour. But the primary reason has been sharp drop in new cases.
District Health Officer K.S. Prasad told Rashtra News that the vaccination campaign has been stepped up with the health workers making doorstep visits. There are about 1.90 lakh people who are yet to get their second dose even after completing the 84-day gap from their first dose. When compared to other districts, the number is less. Yet, we are on the job and confident of maximising the coverage of the second dose at the earliest, he added.
Dr. Prasad said efforts are on to vaccinate at least 10,000 every day so that the target of reaching 90 per cent coverage was achieved by the end of this year. The coverage of first dose in the district stands at 90 per cent.
The department had earlier planned to vaccinate 1 lakh people on a single day holding a mega drive. But, it could vaccinate only 30,000 on that day despite their best efforts. The vaccines are available aplenty in PHCs and hospitals, but people are not coming forward to get their second dose despite completing the 84-day gap. “They are simply delaying their second dose and one of the reasons could be a sharp drop in new cases. The normalcy in the pandemic situation has been driving them to delay their second dose. This should not happen as two doses of vaccine are key for protection against the disease,” the DHO advised.
“We will continue with our efforts and achieve 90 per cent coverage by the year-end. We shall go all out to make it happen amidst the drop in infection rate,” Dr. Prasad said.
( News Source :Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Rashtra News staff and is published from a www.thehindu.com feed.)