M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Dec 1: The Covid-19 Tika Express car has been asked to double up the vaccination drive in Maromar and Mayapur under Garu referral hospital in the Latehar district.
Civil surgeon of Latehar, Dr. Haren Chandra Mahto, said today that he has asked the Tika Express car to achieve the target of 200 vaccinations a day.
“When our ANMs are assigned 100 vaccinations a day, how can the Tika Express car afford to have less than 100 vaccinations,” he added.
The Tika Express car is supposed to supplement the achievement but it gets more of a poor start, reiterated the civil surgeon.
Mahto further said the functionaries of the Tika Express car have been asked to go all out for the vaccination and if necessary, they can move to alternate villages or hamlets to have more eligibles to get the jab.
“If Tika Express comes across eligibles even after the sunset then keeping in mind the safety of the beneficiaries, it can provide the vaccine to them,” the CS added.
Ved Prakash, a health official, said that under the directive of the CS, the lone Tika Express car in Latehar is being closely watched for its movement and performance.
Dr Arvind Kumar, the medical officer-in-charge of the referral hospital which is merged with the community health centre Garu, said: “Our team used car bonnet as the table and vaccinations were conducted at Maromar and Mayapur in flashlights of a couple of cell phones.”
Garu block programme manager, Salman, informed that this Tika Express car conducted 50 vaccinations after sunset which included 14 first dose and 36 second dose last evening.
Health officials informed that many eligibles move out early every day into the paddy field for harvesting crops and come back home late in the afternoon. Hence CS Mahto is sincerely mooting a plan to have the vaccination at night as well to cover those people’s vaccinations.
