PATNA: Bihar is now in the pole position when it comes to vaccinating those in the 18-44 age group in India.
The state has already vaccinated over 15,27,000 people in the age group, ahead of UP's tally of 15,14,761 and Rajashthan's tally of 14,91,581 jabs given. Gujarat is a distant fourth at a little over a million jabs.
The drive that took the state to the top has happened in the last 16 days. It began on May 9 with the arrival of 3.50 lakh doses from the Centre.
"Prior to the start of the vaccination drive for those in the 18-44 age group, soon after it was announced that it will start from May 1 by the government of India, we created nearly 624 vaccination sites across the state. We also prepared a pool of trained paramedics and other health workers to carry out the vaccination," additional chief secretary of the state health department Pratyay Amrit said, confirming the formal opening of vaccination for the age group only began on May 9.
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"On the first day, 79,238 people of this age group were vaccinated in the state and that has now grown to more than 15.32 lakh in the last 16 days," he went on to say.
Detailing the strategies employed, Pratyay Amrit said that the doses were sent to every district almost immediately after the consignment arrived at Patna airport.
"The vaccination sites were created, manpower was deputed and nearly 5.25 crore of people of this age group were identified for vaccination by the time we got the (first) consignment of 3.50 lakh (doses) for this age group," he said.
“We are determined to overcome the Corona pandemic through swift and widespread vaccination of the people of the state, mostly in rural areas. And for rural areas, 700 vaccination express vehicles have been employed to reach the people," Amrit told The New Indian Express.
"Across the state, the public address system was used to encourage youths to enroll and get vaccinated," he added.
The additional chief secretary of the health department also claimed that vaccination of all the people in this age group in 28 flood-prone districts will be completed by July 10.
"For this, we have sent the vaccination express with doses to vaccinate the people and the response of people of all age groups in these flood-prone districts is encouraging," he observed.