Coronavirus | Bihar gears up for second vaccine dose

4.92 lakh health and frontline workers have got first jab

The process of giving the second dose of COVID-19 vaccine to healthcare workers in Bihar began on Monday. Bihar is among top 10 States with the maximum number of beneficiaries vaccinated. A total of 4,92,435 beneficiaries, including 95,435 frontline workers, have been given the first shot in the State since January 16, according to Union Health Ministry data.

The beneficiaries were called to the same vaccination centres where they had received the first dose. A video conference regarding the rollout of the second dose of vaccine was also held on Sunday to provide all necessary instructions to the heads of the health institutes.

“Mondays and Thursdays have been fixed for giving second dose of vaccine to the healthcare workers while the frontline workers will receive the first dose on Tuesdays and Saturdays to avoid any confusion,” said Patna civil surgeon Dr. Vibha Kumari. The beneficiaries were earlier sent messages about when and where they have to go for the second dose of vaccine, said a Health Department official.

Till Sunday the total number of COVID-19 positive cases registered in the State stood at 2,61,741 and the recovery rate has been 99.18%.

Of late, gap in data of those tested for COVID-19 from Jamui district in the State were highlighted in media which had prompted government to suspend some district health officials and also to form several teams of officials to detect such discrepancies in other districts as well.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar had said, “No one will be spared, if found guilty for such data fudging.”

the State government has now made Aaadhar card mandatory for COVID-19 testing in the State, and in case of non-availability of it, other documents were allowed to collect data, a Health Department official said.

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