'Tika Express' to scale up jab drive in Chittoor

Tirupati: Gone are the days when people witnessed long queue lines at Covid-19 vaccination centres and return homes without getting jab at the end of the day. As the country has completed vaccinating 100 crore doses, now the focus is on covering 100 per cent of the population in the eligible age group.

Towards this goal, vaccines have been coming to the doorstep of people as well. To scale up the vaccination drive and achieve 100 per cent inoculation in the target groups, the government has sent two mobile vehicles called as 'Tika Express' to Chittoor district along with other districts.

These vehicles will initially focus on remote areas where the vaccination drive showed poor response. The mobile vehicle teams will try to motivate people and administer shots to them. The officials have been facing an uphill task in completing the vaccination targets. After majority people were already inoculated, the process has slowed down now, and it has become difficult to vaccinate around 60,000 doses in a single day as against more than 1.50 lakh doses earlier.

As the vaccination is the only weapon to protect from the deadly Covid, District Collector M Hari Narayanan has asked the officials to see that vaccination teams go door-to-door to find out the leftovers. Tirupati Municipal Commissioner P S Girisha even asked the people who are not willing to take shots citing various health reasons to produce medical certificates that they should not take vaccines. He made it clear that everyone should be vaccinated at any cost unless they produce such certificates.

District Immunisation Officer Dr C Hanumantha Rao told The Hans India that 43.21 lakh doses were administered in the district up to Thursday afternoon. Out of this 26.99 lakh were first doses while the remaining are the second doses. He said as per Government of India initially there were 27 lakh people in the district in the age group of above 18 years which was revised to 30 lakhs and then to 33 lakhs now.

It seems, the government has also taken into account the 17 years population last year as they complete 18 years by now whereas the medical officers have felt that they could not find so many people in their respective jurisdictions. With this, though they have plenty of doses available they could not approach the people.

Unlike the previous days, now the vaccination drive has been going on at around 150 centres daily where both Covishield and Covaxin are available. Both doctors and officials have been saying that people should voluntarily come in to take their shots to safeguard themselves from the virus.