10 lakh people in Agra miss 2nd Covid vax dose

Nearly 10 lakh people in Agra who have taken the first shot of the Covid-19 vaccine, have missed the second dose even after the expiry of the prescribed date to take the jab.

Calls are being made to these people to come and take the second vaccine shot in view of the looming threat of the new Omicron variant.

According to health department records, out of the 35 lakh population of over 18-year-olds in Agra district, 15.55 lakh people were fully vaccinated.

Over the past 12 months, 28.60 lakh people received the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. Out of these, more than 90 per cent were administered the Covishield vaccine.

Of the 13.05 lakh who received the first jab, 10 lakh had taken the first shot more than three months ago. The recommended gap between the first and second dose is 12 weeks in case of Covishield vaccine and four weeks for Covaxin.

Sanjeev Burman, Agra district immunization officer, said: "Missing out the second dose means one is less protected. It means that if you are exposed to the infection, you may get infected severely."

A.K. Srivastava, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Agra district, said both doses are needed for adequate protection against severe Covid infection and hospitalisation.

"We are prioritising on administering the second dose to beneficiaries who have not got themselves jabbed even after the expiry of the prescribed interval between the two doses. There are around 10 lakh people who have missed the prescribed time for taking the second dose. We are calling them to complete the course of vaccination without further delay," he said.

Following orders of the Central government, the state's health department has also started training the nursing staff for administering a booster dose to people above 60 years old and children in the age group of 15 to 18 years.

Meanwhile, four new cases of Covid surfaced in Agra district on Tuesday, taking the tally of active cases to 14, the highest in the last three months.

The CMO said, "Samples of those who tested positive are being sent for genome sequencing to identify the variant of Covid-19. So far, no case of Omicron case has surfaced in Agra district."