Noida falls short of vax target; 4L await 2nd jab

Noida: At the mega vaccination drive in Noida on Monday, 75% of the doses were reserve for those aged over 45 years who are yet to receive their first shot. Meanwhile, over four lakh eligible recipients are waiting to get their second dose.
During the drive, a total of 31,598 people received the jab and GB Nagar reached 63% of its target of 50,000 shots.As many as 29,775 people were vaccinated at 137 government centres. Of them, 13,281 recipients got the second shot.
Health officials said that 300 doses were given to each centre. These included 250 for the first dose of those in the 45+ category and 50 for the second dose in all categories. The move came after 56,489 people in the 45+ age group were found to have not taken the vaccine yet.
“Some of them were vaccinated over the past 10 days, but about 50,000 such people remained to be vaccinated,” said Dr Neeraj Tyagi, district immunisation officer. He added that routine immunisation throughout the week will give priority to the second dose recipients at all permanent centres.
A fraction of the doses were kept for second dose recipients at many centres, but they were not enough as the number of eligible people is rising in the city. As a result, confusion prevailed at several centres and many residents had to return without getting the shot.
“There was much confusion at the Spectrum Mall centre. Several people went to get their second dose, but they were told that the centre is only giving the first dose. At a centre in Sector 76, a domestic help was returned as the staff asked for online booking of slots,” said JK Khurana, Sector 77 resident. He added that there are over a lakh residents in the 7X sectors that need more centres in the vicinity.
As per the official estimate, all GB Nagar residents have received their first dose. Against an estimated population of 15.89 lakh, a total of 24.21 lakh doses were given till Monday evening. These included 16.85 lakh first doses and 7.35 lakh second doses.