Covid vaccination drive: Telangana sees 10% dip in coverage on Day 2

HYDERABAD: A 10% dip in coverage was seen in Telangana on Day 2 of the vaccination drive. On Saturday, 92 per cent coverage was registered compared to 82 per cent on Monday.
While there was some hesitancy towards taking the Covid vaccine at centres TOI visited on Monday — with many seeing less than 30 beneficiaries turn up — health authorities said figures improved by the end of the day.

As against a target of vaccinating 16,750 beneficiaries at 335 vaccination centres, the state was able to vaccinate 13,666 beneficiaries, falling short of nearly 3,000 beneficiaries.
Cases of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) were also reported across the state on Monday. “All the 15 cases are of mild AEFI and all the people are stable and being monitored. Depending on the symptoms some have been taken to the hospital to be monitored for a couple of hours. We are not taking any chances,” said Dr G Srinivasa Rao, director public health, Telangana.
The vaccination programme will be rolled out at nearly 800 vaccine session sites from Tuesday onwards. At each of these sites 100 beneficiaries will be vaccinated which takes the target for Tuesday to 50,000 vaccinations.
Up to 2pm, several vaccination centres across the city saw 20 to 30 beneficiaries turn up as against the list of 50 beneficiaries forwarded to each. This had forced some of the centres to wrap up the programme between 1.30pm to 2pm.
At the centre at the Osmania General Hospital, just 25 beneficiaries turned up. The remaining were either unfit, out of station or not willing to be vaccinated. A similar situation was noticed at the Tilak Nagar UPHC (Urban Primary Health Centre). While state health authorities were able to muster numbers on the first day, on the second many planned beneficiaries stood their ground to not take the vaccine. Replacement was difficult to find and the overall cumulative target met in the first and second day was 84 per cent.
At the Gandhi hospital, by the end of the day only 24 people turned up for getting the jab, against a target of 50. This, despite the hospital authorities taking several awareness sessions over the last one week to improve participation from healthcare workers. At the vaccination centre at Area Hospital Kondapur too, 29 people turned up for receiving the jab on the second day of the vaccination programme.