Mother with children below 5 years to be vaccinated on priority in Vizag

Taking up a quick move on vaccinating every individual in Vizag, a total of 1 lakh vaccine doses of both Covishield and Covaxin have been stocked up by the District Immunisation Department. So far, around 12.39 lakh individuals have been administered the vaccine. Preparing for the third wave of the pandemic, the district officials have taken a decision to give priority to mothers with children below 5 years in Vizag to be vaccinated. Estimating to have around 1 lakh mothers under the said category, vaccination drives will be conducted in the next few days for these mothers. 

As the number of positive cases in Vizag comes down, the number of individuals administered vaccines is going high. Of the total 1 lakh vaccines stocked, around 8000 are Covaxin, while the rest are Covishield doses. So far, the first dose has been taken by 10.3 lakh individuals and 2.36 lakh individuals have been administered with the second dose. As the gap between two doses of Covishield has increased, there are still many who are yet to get their second dose of vaccine. A mega vaccination drive will be conducted by the District Health and Medical Officials in Vizag with at least 60,000 vaccines to be administered in a day, giving first priority to the mothers. 

It may be recalled that the frontline workers have completed their two doses of vaccination and a majority of the individuals above 45 years have got vaccinated. From June 21, individuals above 18 years will be given free vaccination. Observing the cases being reported, many who were initially reluctant to take their vaccine also came forward to get vaccinated. “We have identified around 1,12,000 mothers so far in Vizag with children below five years to be vaccinated. ASHA workers, Anganwadi centres and health teams were told to mobilise the mothers in their wards for getting their first dose of vaccine. With the list given to the health teams, they will interact with the mothers and give them a token for vaccination,” said the District Immunisation Officer, Dr. Jeevan Rani.