Deputy Commissioner of Dharwad Nitesh Patil has said that the administration will be conducting a ‘mop-up inoculation drive’ from Monday to Wednesday [February 22 to 24] for those COVID-19 warriors who had registered for the vaccination but had not received the shots yet.
Speaking to presspersons after getting the Covishield vaccine at the District Civil Hospital in Dharwad on Sunday, Mr. Patil said that during these three days, those people, who had registered, could straight away visit centres to get the vaccine even if they do not receive an SMS.
Mr. Patil said that in the first phase of the vaccination drive, out of the 28,750 health workers who had registered, so far 14,191 had received the first dose of the vaccine and 4,156 had received the second dose.
“As many as 8,775 employees of the municipal corporation, local bodies, the Departments of Revenue and Rural Development had registered for the vaccination and of them 3,292 (37.5%) have already been inoculated. The remaining could get the vaccine shots on the stipulated dates,” he said.
The Deputy Commissioner clarified that even those who had received the SMS, but were unable to visit the centres for getting inoculated on the stipulated dates, could visit the centres now along with those who had not received the SMS so far.
On the developments pertaining to COVID-19 in some States, he said that the pandemic had not been eradicated and there was need to be careful and take all necessary precautions as before.
The wearing of masks, washing of hands properly, using sanitiser, and maintaining social distancing should be continued for some more time, he said.
Subsequently, Mr. Patil interacted with the hospital staff and the patients and checked the facilities available. He said that a separate ward had been set up to treat malnutrition among the children where over a dozen children could be treated at a time.
During the inspection, Mr. Patil took the contractor and the officials to task for the slow pace work on the 100-bed hospital coming up on the same premises. He told the contractor and the officials to ensure the completion of work by March 31.
Giving strict warnings, he said that in case the construction firm (SR Construction) failed to meet the deadline, it would be blacklisted. Action would also be taken against engineer of the Health Department S.N. Suresh who was monitoring the project.
