Covid-19 vaccination to take place every Thursday, Friday from next week in Uttar Pradesh

LUCKNOW: Covid-19 vaccination will take place twice a week -- on every Thursday and Friday -- in Uttar Pradesh. The move is a part of a specific strategy drafted to ensure smooth operation of different health programmes and health activities in the state, say state health officials.
“The next round of Covid-19 vaccination will take place on January 22 and from next week, the vaccination will be held on every Thursday and Friday.In the sessions to be held in January, health workers will be covered,” said additional chief secretary health and family welfare Amit Mohan Prasad.
Detailed orders were issued to districts in this regard by Aparna U, mission director, National Health Mission, UP. To note, the state has prepared a list of around nine lakh health workers to be inoculated in the state of which about 22,000 were covered in the first round.
On why UP did not conduct the three-day long vaccination campaign like other states, officials engaged in planning said: “January 17 was a pre-declared pulse polio immunization day which is a massive exercise in UP. However, later, the date was rescheduled by the health ministry for January 31. Sundays are also reserved for Mukhyamantri Jan Aarogya Mela. And above all, states have been given the liberty to tweak the roll out as per local needs.”
Several states are conducting Covid-19 vaccination three days a week unlike UP. When asked to comment, a senior officer said: “Wednesdays and Saturdays are reserved for routine immunization activity. Sundays are booked for Aarogya Mela while health teams need one day as off and another day to plan and review the work. This left the state with two days, Thursday and Friday.”
But UP has a massive target to cover and are two days enough considering the target? On this, the team said: “the state will increase the number of sessions and sites slowly to achieve the goal.”
Earlier, additional chief secretary, information, Navneet Sehgal, said, the first round of vaccination passed off smoothly. “We appeal to people not to have apprehensions about the vaccination drive,” he said.
He said the Corona infection was on a decline because of the strategy adopted by the state government. Sehgal said, chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed officials to ensure that at least 1.25 lakh samples are tested every day.