Mega COVID-19 vaccination drive in Lucknow today targets 1 lakh jabs

Lucknow District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash said the drive will be carried out at 160 vaccination centres, adding that the state authorities have set a target of administering 86,400 doses in the district today.

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New Delhi: In a bid to vaccinate one lakh people, the Lucknow district administration will carry out a mega COVID-19 vaccination drive on Monday (September 6). It will be the highest inoculations in a single day since the start of the mass immunisation campaign in January this year. So far, the record is 93,436 vaccinations on August 27.

District Magistrate Abhishek Prakash told IANS that the drive will be carried out at 160 vaccination centres, adding that the state authorities have set a target of administering 86,400 doses in Lucknow on Monday, but the district administration and the health department has made preparations to inoculate over a lakh people.

District immunisation officer Dr MK Singh, told IANS, "As many as 160 vaccination sites have been made in which 461 booths will carry out the drive. Of the total sites, 104 will be special camps that are also known as Workplace Covid Vaccination Centres. These camps will be organised at religious places, government offices, residential apartments, schools and colleges."

Singh further added that "Walk-in registration facility will be available to those who are unable to book a slot in advance. These people will have to produce a government recognised photo ID proof at the centre. While 40 per cent of the doses will be reserved for the walk-in category, 60 per cent shots will be given to those who book slots online." 

The special vaccination camps organised at religious places of various faiths in the city have given a major boost to the vaccination drive against Covid-19. They account for nearly 10 per cent of the total 28.2 lakh Covid doses administered in Lucknow so far.

Notably, there are 19 such special camps in the state capital, with the highest, 77,156 shots, administered at the booths set up at Eidgah Aishbagh, followed by Naka Gurdwara (48,520), Chhota Imambara (30,020), Sant Nirankari Bhawan (17,183), Sadar Gurdwara (15,745) and Radha Swami Satsang (6,299). The remaining 13 places are also administering doses.

Meanwhile, India today logged 38,948 new coronavirus infections and 219 fresh fatalities, the lowest in 167 days, according to the Union Health Ministry'a updated data.

With the fresh cases, the total tally of COVID-19 cases has climbed to 3,30,27,621, while the death toll has climbed to 4,40,752. The case fatality rate has declined to 1.33 per cent after 48 days, said the data updated at 8 am.

Earlier on March 23, India had reported 199 deaths in a single day. The country crossed the grim milestone of two crores on May 4 and three crores on June 23.

The 219 new fatalities include 74 from Kerala and 67 from Maharashtra. A total of 4,40,752 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,37,774 from Maharashtra, 37,409 from Karnataka, 35,018 from Tamil Nadu, 25,082 from Delhi, 22,856 from Uttar Pradesh, 21,496 from Kerala and 18,502 from West Bengal, said the report.

The Union Health Ministry, however, stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

(With Agency Inputs)