LUCKNOW: Accomplishing its Mission June, Uttar Pradesh vaccinated one crore persons six days before the deadline.
By 7pm on Thursday, the state had administered 1,03,11,049 doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.
It had set a target of inoculating 1 crore beneficiaries in June with an average of more than 3 lakh doses per day.
Now, the next goal is to vaccinate 10 crore people in the next three months.
On Thursday, UP surpassed the 7 lakh vaccination mark for the fourth consecutive day — by 7 pm, 7,73,373 jabs had been given.
This is the fastest vaccination exercise conducted anywhere in the country, say UP 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.
In this way, UP’s achievement came at about 30% faster rate,” they say.
Likewise, UP is 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 immunisation 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 to action.” He added that concerted efforts made under Mission June like dedicated booths for guardians, women special centers, drive-ins, employee camps etc 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 organised inside the villages along with the health centers 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 mobilisation activities while the vaccination began on June 21.
The total number of jabs given in the past four days is nearly 31 lakh.
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% of those vaccinated under Mission June are from the 18 to 44 years age group.
Meanwhile, the total number of vaccinations undertaken in UP 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.
Experts are of the view that the cluster approach will help UP achieve the target of vaccinating 10-12 lakh persons per day from July as announced by CM Yogi Adityanath.
“The cluster approach has institutionalised the process of vaccination in the state.
And processes make goals achievable,” said Dr Praful Bharadwaj, health officer, Unicef, UP.
Insiders said that if UP gets a sustained supply of vaccines, it will be able to inoculate 13.6 crore people by the end of August.