LUCKNOW: The number of daily doses of Covid-19 vaccination administered on Thursday dropped below 9,500 but was enough to take Lucknow’s overall score to over 25 lakh since the start of the immunisation drive on January 16 this year.
A total of 9,406 people were jabbed with the first or second dose of vaccine at 54 booths in the city.
Among those vaccinated on Thursday, about 4,717 persons took the first dose and 4,689 the second.
Thursday's figure was three times less than 27,333 doses administered on Wednesday.
The daily vaccinations dropped on Thursday because the health department is making preparations to inoculate a record number of people on Friday.
“The entire administration was busy preparing for the big day,” said a senior health officer.
However, despite the low score on Thursday, the number of doses administered in eight months so far crossed the 25 lakh mark.
The break-up of overall vaccinations shows that now 6.45 lakh people in the state capital have been fully vaccinated with two doses, while 12.1 lakh people have taken the first dose and are waiting for the waiting period to get over to take the second of vaccine.
District immunization officer Dr MK Singh said that efforts are being made to improve daily vaccinations. “Over 80,000 doses will be administered on Friday and thereafter we will try to maintain 40,000 inoculations daily so that the entire population is covered at the earliest,” he added.
Lucknow’s adult population is about 36 lakh and the health department has to vaccinate all the eligible people to minimise the impact of the pandemic.
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Such a large number of inoculations in a single day inject confidence among people and serve as a booster for the mass immunisation campaign. However, health officials need to deploy enough manpower on Friday to ensure Covid protocols are followed at all the centres and there is no mismanagement, chaos and overcrowding as witnessed in the previous record-breaking drive on August 16.
