The health authorities resorted to micro-management to give a push to the COVID vaccination drive in south coastal Andhra Pradesh as the number of active cases crossed the 300-mark on Thursday.
A battery of health officials led by Nellore Joint Collector N. Prabhakar Reddy fanned out to two villages Chennuru and Dagadarthi for a door-to-door survey to identify all eligible persons for inoculation drive.
The soaring mercury was no deterrent as a steady stream of villagers assembled at the village secretariat. A group of health workers waiting for them from the morning administered the vaccine.
By the evening, 50 persons above 45 years of age with comorbidity conditions were administered vaccine at Chennuru village. As many as 125 persons aged above 60 years also took the jab.
“We will cover all the persons in the target group in every village,” said District Medical and Health Officer S. Rajyalakshmi after overseeing the inoculation of vaccine to over 7,200 persons till late in the evening.
With this, 1.30 lakh persons have been given the vaccine in the district, where after a dull start, the drive has picked up pace as people shed their hesitation to take the jab.
In Dagadarthi, as many as 144 persons aged above 45 years with other diseases were inoculated and 118 persons above 60 years of age by late in the evening.
Meanwhile, there was no respite from coronavirus incidence as 33 in Nellore district and 30 in Prakasam district tested positive. Health officials swung into action and subjected to testing their primary and secondary contacts after isolating them. The number of active cases rose to 302. The saving grace was that none of those undergoing treatment succumbed to the disease. As a result the toll remained unchanged at 509 in Nellore district and 582 in Prakasam district.
Helpdesk set up
The recovery rate dipped to 98.88% in the region. In Prakasam district, the health officials set up a helpdesk in over 1000 villages to register the names those in the targeted group and administer them vaccine.
