Target to vaccinate of 1.78 crore people in Assam: State Health Department

To date 33.56 lakh doses inoculated

STAFF REPORTER

GUWAHATI: The State Health Department says that it will consider its COVID-19 vaccination drive success if it can inoculate 1.78 crore target people – around 70 lakh 45+ and around 1.08 crore 18+. However, the department needs time to achieve this target.

The vaccination target of the State is in sync with the guidelines issued by the Government of India and the State's population size. However, a few people may still be left out as the vaccination target is based on the 2011 census figure. According to sources in the department, it's a time-taking exercise as it has to carry out the vaccination drive based on the supply of vaccines from the Centre.

A source in the department said, "Till Saturday, we have a vaccine stock of 1.70 lakh for 45+ and 2.35 lakh for 18+. Till Saturday from the beginning of the vaccination drive, the department inoculated 33.56 lakh doses. This figure includes the first and second dose of 45+ and the first dose of 18+ people.

"We want to speed up the vaccination drive, but the hurdle of trained manpower makes us keep people on the wait. Our target is to vaccinate one lakh people per day. However, the target cannot be met due to various reasons.

"A section of youths who have just attained 18 years of age is not able to register their names for the vaccination. This is because such people don't have documents like voter IDs, PAN cards, AADHAR cards etc.

"Five documents have been allowed by the Central Government's guidelines for vaccination. These are voter IDs, PAN cards, AADHAR cards, passports and driving licences. We're contemplating on including more documents for the inclusion of this section in the vaccination drive, subject to approval by the Centre."

On the testing front, the source said, "In the past ten days we could COVID test of around six lakh people. Thus on an average tests were conducted on 60,000 people daily. Our target is to test one lakh, people, daily. We want to reach the rural populace through mobile COVID-19 testing facilities as the virus is spreading in interior rural areas. In Guwahati, our target is to vaccinate 20,000 people per day," the source added.

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