Jamshedpur, Jan 3: Health Minister Banna Gupta inaugurated the COVID-19 vaccination programme for the 15-18 age groups at Karim City College on Monday. The administration has come up with 8 permanent centers in the city and 20 vaccination centers in rural areas for the above age group.
Addressing the event, Gupta said that the number of corona infected people is continuously increasing in the state. He said that both the earlier waves were very painful in which we have lost thousands of people. In such a situation, there is an appeal to all the children of the 15-18 age group of the state and district to get their vaccination done soon.
Expressing gratitude to the officials and personnel of the district administration and health department, he said that due to the vitality of all of you, the state has overcome the menace of both the waves well before. He said that at present there is no clear information about the third wave, what is its intensity and how much effect it will leave, but we have to be worried as well as work with patience. In adverse circumstances, we have to live, make a living and while keeping ourselves safe, we also have to keep other people safe from Korana infection.
DC Suraj Kumar in his address said that there is a target of immunization of 1 lakh 66 thousand children in the age group of 15 to 18 in the district, which efforts will be made to achieve it at the earliest. He said that in both the earlier waves, efforts were made to provide better health facilities to the citizens with limited medical resources, in the third wave also the district administration is fully prepared but no citizen should take this disease lightly.
The 15 to 18 age group has a population of over 1.66 lakhs in the steel city and beyond. Dhalbhum sub-divisional officer SK Meena who is supervising the vaccination drive said the inoculation process began in earnest as teens flocked to different centres to get their jabs.
The vaccination drive at XLRI auditorium, Karim City College, Loyola School, Balichela High School, Hill Top School and Vidya Bharati Chinmaya Vidyalaya began around the same time at 10.30 am. The jab drive will continue till 5 pm.
The Covid cases are seeing a sharp spike in steel city. During the past 24 hours, 179 people tested positive after 123 people were tested on Saturday and 74 persons on Friday.
Tata Main Hospital (TMH) has come up with 1000 plus oxygen equipped beds as part of its preparation. Out of these beds 450 are based at the hospital’s premises, 100 beds have been prepared with facilities of ventilator, while 550 beds are based out of the hospital. The hospital was operating 591 Covid beds out of these 441 beds at TMH during the second wave. During a telephonic media interaction, Dr Rajan Choudhry, advisor, and former general manager, medical services, Tata Steel said that going by the number of positive cases being reported in the city it can be said that it is the beginning of the third wave.
