SUNDAY, MAY 19, 2024
Team Herald
PANJIM: Against the oft-repeated target given by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant of achieving 100 per cent vaccination in Goa by July 31, on deadline day, 86.42 per cent of Goa’s eligible 12 lakh population was vaccinated, with 7.6 lakh of having received the first dose.
As on July 31, from the time the vaccination drive began in the State, a total of 7,66,619 persons were vaccinated with the first dose, whereas 2,70,507 were fully vaccinated, meaning they had received both doses.
As per details shared by the State Immunisation Officer Dr Rajendra Borkar on Saturday, a total of 13,07,633 doses had been administered since the vaccination drive began in Goa on January 16, 2021.
On June 4, 2021 Sawant had set July 31 as the target date for the entire population above 18 years receiving the first dose of the vaccination. At this point of time, around 5.5 lakh doses had been administered and around 97,000 persons had received both doses.
As per figures shared by Borkar on July 31, the State government has been allocated 20,98,300 doses so far from the Centre. Furthermore, the State’s vaccine stock balance at 9am of July 31, stood at 8,89,750.
On July 31, a total of 12,460 doses were administered.
On July 22, the CM had stated that 80 per cent of the population had been vaccinated and that one lakh of the population was left to receive their first dose. He urged these persons to get inoculated. The CM had also admitted that since receiving the vaccine is voluntary, getting 100 per cent of the population vaccinated would depend on all the people going forward.
He had appealed to the people, especially those who were expressing vaccine hesitancy, to come forward and reiterated that the vaccines are safe. The State’s Health Department had also launched awareness drives in this regard.
Incidentally, on July 22, Sawant had said that the entire population would be fully vaccinated by September end. However, earlier on multiple occasions, he had said that the target of fully vaccinating the entire population would be achieved by October end.
For a perspective, Goa crossed the 10 lakh mark in July and the 5 lakh mark had been achieved at the end of May.
It may be recalled that on July 25, 2021, since the first day the vaccination drive had begun, the State had crossed the 10 lakh figure. A total of 10,06,824 doses had been administered at that point of time.
The CM had celebrated this milestone as well as the previous one, where Goa had crossed the 5 lakh figure on May 28. A total of 5,04,468 doses had been administered at that point of time.
Over the last few months, the State government has organised three Tika Utsav drives where the last one allowed people to walk in directly to centres for the jab. Before that, there were delays due to the online registration and the State had provided relaxations to several categories of persons. The 18-44 age-groups could only receive their vaccines from mid-May due as the vaccine stock had been delayed. However, later on the Central government eased the vaccine delivery process to all the State governments and Union Territories in India.
