Nearly all in Gautam Budh Nagar have got first vaccine dose, says admin

The Gautam Budh Nagar administration is likely to soon stop administering first doses of Covid-19 vaccines, after jabs to more people than the official adult population count of the district, senior officials said on Sunday.

Data from the district’s immunisation programme shows that Gautam Budh Nagar has an adult population of 1,589,815 people, while 1,618,215 got first doses of Covid-19 vaccines till 8pm on Sunday, according to the CoWin dashboard.

District magistrate Suhas L Yathiraj however said that around 60,000 people “in some pockets” of Gautam Budh Nagar, mostly aged above 45, are yet to get a single vaccine jab.

“Our vaccination teams are identifying the pockets where most of these beneficiaries live. We’ll launch door-to-door schemes and walk-in vaccination programmes for them, so that the entire eligible lot of beneficiaries can be vaccinated with first jabs. Once they are covered, we’ll stop offering first doses in our centres,” he said.

These pockets include mostly rural areas in Jewar, Dadri and Bisrakh blocks, said officials.

The nationwide Covid-19 vaccination programme began on January 16 this year. In that time, Gautam Budh Nagar has administered a total of 2,230,642 jabs, and 612,427 have received both shots of a vaccine. Over two million of the jabs in the district have been shots of Serum Institute of India’s Covishield jab, and a bulk of the rest are doses of Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin.

The district has added 63,383 cases so far since the outbreak of the pandemic, of whom 466 have died, showed state government data. The state added no fresh cases on Sunday, and has recorded an average of just one case each day over the past week.

The excess vaccinated population in the district may be due to its floating population, officials said.

“Being an industrial hub and due to its proximity to the national capital, a lot of people either come here to work every day or travel to other neighbouring places from the district. People from both these groups have received their jabs in the district. And, being a central government programme, we can’t stop anyone from getting their shots,” said Yathiraj.

Dr Neeraj Tyagi, the district immunisation officer, said that door-to-door awareness campaigns have also been started, to encourage people aged above 45 to get vaccinated.

“To clear their doubts and fear, we’ve have been telling them repeatedly that only vaccination can be the best safeguard against the Covid-19 infection. We’ll soon begin the door-to-door vaccination in their areas,” he said.