Chief Secretary Ashwani Kumar on Thursday took the first dose of vaccination against COVID-19 in a bid to provide a fillip to the programme, amid concerns over the Union Territory having one of the country’s tardiest immunisation rates.
Along with Chief Secretary S.D. Sundaresan, the Special Secretary to the Lt. Governor also received the first dose of the vaccine at a facility set up at the General Hospital.
In fact, data released on the day by the Union Health Ministry showed that Puducherry had recorded the lowest vaccination performance of 17.5%.
Bihar led with over 79% of the registered healthcare workers being vaccinated while seven States and Union Territories reported less than 40% vaccination coverage. A total of 13 States and Union Territories achieved over 65% coverage of registered healthcare workers.
Mr. Ashwani Kumar said a State-level review held earlier in the day found that the vaccination rate in Puducherry was below par and a decision had been taken to change the situation. Describing the vaccination as a “smooth experience”, he said officers at various levels entitled for immunisation should go in and receive their first shot without delay.
Pointing out that vaccination was one of the ways of fighting COVID-19, the Chief Secretary noted that so far Puducherry had done quite well in keeping a lid on the spread of the infection.
“It has maintained all economic activities and yet was able to contain COVID-19. Now, it is time to adopt vaccination in our scheme of things as it is one of the measures for the fight against the pandemic to be effective,” Mr. Ashwani Kumar said.
Appeal to doctors
He appealed to the medical fraternity, including doctors and paramedical staff, to get vaccinated as quickly as possible to put Puducherry at the top in immunisation coverage in the country.
Puducherry has a 100% immunisation track record in other nationally driven programmes and this success had to be extended to COVID vaccination now, Mr. Ashwani Kumar said.
T. Arun, Health Secretary, said all facilities were in place to administer vaccines for an estimated 25,000 healthcare personnel and 7,000 frontline workers. The vaccines were safe and there was no need for any apprehension, he said.
In over a fortnight since the vaccination programme was rolled out nationwide, Puducherry has so far innoculated 4,587 healthcare workers, including 330 personnel in the last 24 hours. In the four days since the immunisation was extended to frontline workers, 183 persons received their first shot. The aggregate of persons covered under the vaccination drive stands at 4,770.
No deaths reported
Meanwhile, the Union Territory saw 25 new COVID-19 cases and posted 22 recoveries in the last 24 hours. No deaths were reported.
The new cases were from Puducherry (17), Karaikal (five) and Mahe (three).
No cases emerged from Yanam.
The tally was 656 deaths, 296 active cases, a total of 39,397 cases and 38,445 recovered patients.
The test positivity rate was 1.05%, case fatality rate 1.67% and recovery rate 97.58%.
The number of tests conducted to date was on the verge of crossing 6 lakh with an estimated 5.99 lakh tests undertaken so far, of which about 5.55 lakh returned negative for the virus.
Cuddalore district reported 16 fresh cases of COVID-19 on Thursday, taking the district’s tally to 25,033.
While 24,667 persons have been discharged, the number of active cases in the district stands at 55.
In Villupuram district, two persons tested positive, taking the total number of positive cases in the district to 15,220.
Kallakurichi district reported one positive case, taking the overall count to 10,893.
