LUCKNOW: The last eight days of this month have recorded the fastest vaccination rate in Lucknow in six months of the Covid-19 immunisation campaign which took off on January 16. An extra push from now onwards can cover eligible adult population of Lucknow with at least single dose by September-end, when the third wave is expected to hit the city, according to a rough analysis by TOI.
The adult population of Lucknow is around 35.8 lakh. Total 14.1 lakh doses have been administered in 165 days from January 16 till June 29. About 2.8 lakh people have completed two-dose vaccine course (total 5.6 lakh doses) which means that 8.5 lakh people have got a single dose so far. These people will be eligible for second dose after completing the time gap required for the course.
About 24.5 lakh eligible people have not received any dose so far. To inoculate this segment, the health department will require to administer 27,000 doses daily. Simultaneously, an increasing number of people will become eligible for a second dose.
Covidshield is given 12-16 weeks apart while Covaxin is administered after a gap of 4-6 weeks. According to an estimate, 9,500 people will qualify daily for the second dose which means that about 36,500 doses will have to be administered daily till September-end to inoculate every adult with at least one dose. However, on an average, about 10% of the people are ineligible for vaccination because due to issues and medical reasons. This brings down the figure of doses to be administered daily to 32,850. Over 1.78 lakh doses were administered since June 21 at an average of 22,250 daily at various vaccination centres. Highest 28,131 doses were given on June 25.
Experts said if the health department, with the support of private sector, improves a bit on its June 25 performance, the goal to vaccinate all eligible adults by September-end can be met. The task will be easier with the availability of Russian vaccine Sputnik in private hospitals.
Former head of the microbiology department, Institute of Medical Sciences, BHU, Prof Anil Kumar Gulati said even if 80-90 % of adult population gets vaccinated with one dose by September-October, the impact of the third Covid-19 wave would be considerably less than the second.
Head of medicine department at KGMU, Prof Virendra Atam, said studies have shown that a single vaccine shot can prevent severity by 60-70% even in Delta variant of novel coronavirus.
