Patiala Health Dept scrambles to achieve vaccination target as poll date draws near

Patiala, February 11

With just a few days left for the Assembly election, the Health Department is going all out to vaccinate as many beneficiaries as they can. The election commission has already set the target so as to conduct the elections in Covid-free environment.

Health officials have been going door-to-door to look out for beneficiaries.

Besides, mobile vaccination teams are also vaccinating the people at public places and farm fields.

Officials of the Health Department said they had constituted around 450 vaccination teams in the district to achieve the target.

The commission has asked to attain the mark of 92 per cent of the targeted population with first dose and 70 per cent with the second shot. Currently, around 90 per cent of the population has received the first dose in the district, while 60 per cent have received both the doses.

Patiala Civil Surgeon Dr Prince Sodhi claimed that they had been successful in vaccinating over 1.5 lakh beneficiaries over the past seven days. He further said they administered around 23 lakh doses ever since the Covid vaccination drive kicked off.

Sources said the Health Department to jack up the vaccination tally in the district had been issuing certificates to beneficiaries without actually administering Covid doses. However, health officials said there were some beneficiaries, who had received the doses, and entry thereof could not be uploaded on the portal due to various reasons, therefore, they were entering the data after verifying from beneficiaries.