No more booking of slots would be required for Covid 19 vaccination in the district as the health department would now make it possible for people in their vicinity from July 1 introducing cluster model.

In their bid to intensify the Covid vaccination drive in the district, the health department officials have decided to hold camps to administer the Covid vaccine to people in their vicinity dividing the entire population of the district into 200 clusters of 20000 people.

For this, the health department staff would approach people and vaccinate them in the camps being organised in their respective clusters.

It may be noted that so far only 56.3 per cent population under 45 plus age group has been vaccinated for Covid in the district. Hence, to increase the speed of vaccination, the officials have decided to take the vaccine close to people and vaccinate them without any previous booking of slots.

District vaccination officer Dr Praveen Gautam said that to intensify the vaccination drive for Covid 19 in the district, the population is being divided into 200 clusters and in each cluster, 20,000 people would be vaccinated. This cluster model would be implemented in the district from July 1, he added.

Dr Gautam said that they have already started a pilot project with three clusters which is ongoing in the district. “After the success of this pilot project we have decided to implement the model in the entire district,” said Dr Gautam.

Till now people had to go to the vaccination centres and get themselves vaccinated. For the age group 18 to 44 years, slots were booked online for vaccination, but now in the cluster model teams of the health department would approach people for vaccination and get them vaccinated at the nearby booth.

“The district has a population of 40 lakh approximately that would be divided into 200 clusters and each cluster will cover a population of 20000 people,” said Dr Gautam adding that each cluster would have a vaccination booth and one booth would be covering 200 people.

The deputed staff would approach these 200 people and make sure that they come to the designated booth in their vicinity for vaccination, he explained and said that this cluster model would help them in achieving the 100 per cent vaccination target.

The vaccination at the booths would be done on first come first serve basis without any previous booking of online slots, he said adding that many people, particularly in rural areas either do not have access to internet facility or are not internet friendly. Hence, by evading the compulsion of slot booking such people would be able to get vaccinated, he said.

So far in the district against the target of 7,44,572 only 4,19,549 people of age group 45 plus have been vaccinated which is 56.3 per cent and of these only 70,187 persons have taken booster dose which is only 16.7 per cent of the target whereas in the age group 18 to 44 years 1,71,836 persons have been vaccinated against the target of 209,800 which is 81.9 per cent of the target and of these only 17,124 have been administered with a booster dose.