M F AHMAD
Daltonganj, Mar 21: Stung by a near non-performance of the vaccination of the eligible kids a day after Holi on Sunday, Palamu civil surgeon Palamu Dr Anil Kumar reached two health hubs, one a community health centre at Hariharganj and the other a sub-divisional hospital Chhatarpur, today morning and asked the doctors on duty to speed up the vaccination of teens in the age group 12 to 14.
Palamu CS first reached Hariharganj community health centre this morning. The doctor on duty Asadullah Faiz was asked to gear up his team for the vaccination according to priority to the eligible kids.
10 vaccination teams will roll out today in Hariharganj. These teams will cover every age vaccination like 12-14 and 15 plus including second dose and precaution dose.
There are around five dozen coaching centres under the community health centre Hariharganj which caters to the Pipra health hub. Government doctors and ANMs have been asked to approach coaching management seeking their help in the vaccination of eligible kids.
He said he has suggested the formation of the block level coordination committee which will be a kind of networking for the vaccination.
“All schools residential or non-residential, private or government must be approached for the vaccination,” stressed the Palamu CS.
“We have Kasturba Gandhi Balika Awasiya Vidyalaya, Jharkhand Balika Awasiya Vidyalaya, schools for distressed children, children in remand or correctional homes, kids living with mother inmates in the jails etc are to be duly covered,” he asserted.
Palamu is lagging behind Latehar which has crossed the 2,500 mark of the vaccination of eligible teens between March 16-20 while Palamu is struggling to get closer to even 1,000 counts till the time of writing this report.
Latehar Civil surgeon Dr Haren Chandra Mahto said, “We are just doing our job, keeping eyes on the maximum attendance of the eligible students in their respective classes in their schools.”
Latehar DC Abu Imran is said to be taking stock of the vaccination regularly making all concerned personnel to be on the live wire.
Garhwa district is also battling to improve the rate and percentage of the vaccinations of eligible teens.
Garhwa civil surgeon Dr Kamlesh Kumar said that between March 16-20, the district has finished with only 370 vaccinations of eligible teens. He said festivals overshadowed the performance.
“We would pull out all stops to increase the vaccination numbers now,” he said.
“We are going to prepare a time-bound plan for vaccination till March 31 wherein our teams will be on the lookout for the eligible teens,” he added.
Garhwa DC Ramesh Gholap, who joined Garhwa only on March 2, is also concerned about the vaccination coverage, especially of the teens and the adult recipients who are ducking their second dose much to their own medical disadvantage.
