Jharkhand grapple with the vaccine shortage
Ranchi, August 29: Even as the state continues to grapple with a shortage of vaccines, preparation continues to ramp up infrastructure for the assumed third wave of Covid pandemic.
Jharkhand on Saturday vaccinated about 78,000 residents against Covid-19 as less than 900 session sites remained operational across the state, figures shared by the health department highlighted.
As per provisional data released by the National Health Mission (NHM), the state on Saturday administered the first dose of vaccine to 55,319 residents, while the second jab was administered to at least 22,806 beneficiaries.
Data shared by the health department on Saturday evening highlighted that the state had at least 6,78,220 vaccine doses in stock before the session sites opened their doors on Saturday. All the 4,44,790 doses of Covishield available in the state were allotted to districts and there were zero doses of this vaccine at the State Vaccine Store in Ranchi on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Jharkhand has decided to equip all government hospitals, including community health centers (CHCs) and primary healthcare centers (PHCs) with roof top solar plants in the next few months.
According to officials at Jharkhand Renewable Energy Development Agency (JREDA), during the pandemic it was observed that keeping the freezer and other medical equipment working is important for preserving the medicines for a longer period of time. It was decided to install 2-4 KW small solar power plants in all CHCs and PHCs across Jharkhand.
Along with the health care centers, police stations, residential girl’s schools and tribal hostels will also be equipped with solar power plants to ensure a regular supply of electricity with an intention to reduce power consumption by at least 40-45 per cent. As many as 1,400 buildings have been identified under Renewable Power Development Programme.
According to JREDA Project Director Vijay Kumar Sinha, about 20 MW power is expected to be generated by installing roof top solar plants on these 1400 buildings. “As of now, our first priority is health centers like CHCs, PHCs, Sadar Hospitals, secondly, we will be focusing on police stations, then comes residential girls school and tribal hostels,” said the Project Director.
It will not only install but also be committed towards its maintenance. There will be a chip fitted with every solar plant which we would enable to know sitting in Ranchi that whether it is functioning well or it has stopped working or has developed a snag which may be fixed in the next couple of hours.
The active caseload of Covid-19 dropped further down to 142 in Jharkhand on Saturday as the state reported at least 18 Covid recoveries against 14 fresh cases of infection, a separate bulletin from NHM stated.