Gurugram: NGOs, pvt hospitals to be roped in to speed up jab drive

The health department will rope in NGOs and private hospitals to speed up the process of administering the second dose to eligible beneficiaries in the 15-18 age group in the district, said officials on Tuesday.

During the district task force meeting on Tuesday, the chief medical officer said that the district has vaccinated over 95% of the eligible teenagers in government schools with the first dose.

“Gurugram district ranks first in the entire state in vaccinating 15 to 18-year-olds in government schools due to the joint efforts of the health and education departments. Over 41,000 children out of the 43,173 beneficiaries identified in the 15-18 age group in government schools in the district have been vaccinated,” said Dr Virender Yadav, chief medical officer of Gurugram.

Over 100,000 children, including students in private schools, have vaccinated with the first dose in Gurugram of the 151,000 eligible beneficiaries in the 15-18 age group.

“We will tie up with NGOs and private schools to fully vaccinate maximum children at the earliest. If any private school wants to organize vaccination camps in their premises, they will be given immediate approval from the health department,” he said.

At least 2,778 vaccine doses were given to teenagers in the district on Tuesday, of which 719 were first doses and 2,059 second dose. Those who have completed 28 days after taking the first dose are eligible to take the second dose.

The CMO also directed heads of all government and private hospitals present in the meetin, to ensure that healthcare workers, frontline workers and all employees in their respective departments get the second and booster dose of Covid-19 vaccine at the earliest. Private hospitals have also been directed to set up vaccination camps at all places where they had organised camps earlier for administering first doses.

On Tuesday, a total of 9,665 doses were administered to beneficiaries in the district, including 2,292 first doses, 6,208 second doses and 1,165 precautionary doses. Gurugram has administered a total of 4.78 million vaccines till date.

The health department also directed private hospitals to conduct Covid-19 tests of patients only once during admission. District surveillance officer Dr Jai Prakash, while addressing the representatives of private hospitals, said, “Private hospitals should not conduct Covid-19 tests repeatedly on the patients admitted at the hospital. According to the new guidelines, Covid-19 test can be done only at the time of admission of the patient. If any hospital repeats this process again and again, then it will be considered as a violation of the Covid-19 guidelines and action will be taken accordingly.”

Gurugram reports less than 1,000 cases after almost a month
Gurugram reported less than 1,000 cases in a single day after almost a month as 909 fresh infections were reported in the district on Tuesday at a positivity rate of 13.88%. The last time the district reported less than 1,000 cases in a day was on January 4, when it recorded 634 cases.

As many as 1,671 patients were declared ‘recovered’ on Tuesday, taking the active case tally to 5,948. Currently, 122 patients are admitted in hospitals for treatment. According to official records, 6,546 samples were collected for Covid-19 tests in the district in the past 24 hours.

The district also reported two Covid deaths on Tuesday. Officials said a 71-year-old partially vaccinated man and a 44-year-old fully vaccinated man (both had no comorbidities) died due to complications arising after contracting the virus. In Gurugram, 964 patients have died due to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. Hindustan Times