Uttar Pradesh completes 'Mission June', 6 days ahead of deadline

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh has vaccinated one crore people, six days before the end of its 'Mission June' deadline.

Nearly 1,03,11,049 persons had been vaccinated by 7 p.m. on Thursday.

The state government had set a target of inoculating one crore beneficiaries in June with an average of more than 3 lakh doses per day.

The next goal is to vaccinate 10 crore people in the next three months.

This is the fastest vaccination exercise conducted anywhere in the country, say Uttar Pradesh health officials.

"So far, Maharashtra is the only state which is ahead of UP in terms of total doses given. But the western state has been able to dispense about 70 lakh doses in the past 24 days. UP's achievement came at a 30 per cent faster rate," said the government spokesperson.

Uttar Pradesh is also way ahead of the other states like Gujarat which has undertaken about 63 lakh vaccinations in June so far.

Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan have achieved 67 lakh and 52 lakh vaccinations respectively, in the same period.

Although the target was achieved in 24 days, technically it took just 21 days as only a few private centres hold immunization sessions on Sundays, a senior officer said.

Speaking about the achievement, additional chief secretary, health and family welfare, Amit Mohan Prasad said, "It is a matter of pride that the state has been able to achieve the target before time. The credit goes to the hard work put in by every single person in the field who translated the plan into action."

He added that concerted efforts made under 'Mission June' like dedicated booths for guardians, women special centres, drive-ins and employee camps were taken to the next level through the cluster approach.

"The journey towards the goal was accelerated through the cluster approach which we will launch in full swing from July," he said.

Under the cluster approach, started from Barabanki district, focused and intensified vaccination drives are being taken in small geographical units. Also, the camps are being organized inside the villages along with the health centres to make it easier for the people.

In addition, the issue of digital divide was addressed by elimination of the necessary prerequisite of registration through app.

Instead, the electoral rolls are being used to identify the eligible persons and vaccinate them.

The dry run for the cluster was rolled out on June 17 with communication and mobilization activities while the vaccination began on June 21.

The total number of jabs given in the past four days is nearly 31 lakhs.

Prior to the cluster formula, the average number of vaccinations per day in the state was about 3.25 lakh.

The data also revealed that over 55 per cent of those vaccinated under Mission June are from the 18 to 44 years age group.

Meanwhile, the total number of vaccinations undertaken in the state reached 2.89 crore by Thursday evening.

Of them, 2.47 crore have taken at least one dose while 41.91 lakh are fully vaccinated in the state.

Sources said that if Uttar Pradesh gets a sustained supply of vaccines, it will be able to inoculate 13.6 crore people by the end of August.