Ggm holds spl drive to vaccinate transgender population

Gurugram: On Sunday, Gurugram became the first metropolis in the country to organise a special vaccination drive for its transgender population. This special drive where COVISHIELD vaccinations were provided to over 200 people from the transgender community was organised at a Government School in Dundahera here.

Significantly, this comes as data on the government's CoWIN portal showed that just a little over 25,000 transgender people have been inoculated so far, which comes up to around 5.2 per cent of the entire transgender population of the country (as per the 2011 Census).

Mentioning the significance of vaccinating all sections of the society, Gurugram Chief Medical Officer Dr Virender Yadav, who was present at the site, assured that there will be more such vaccination drives that will be conducted across the district to tackle specific population groups.

"Our objective is to vaccinate all citizens in Gurugram. We have been partially successful in it as there are 6.6 lakh citizens who have received their vaccines in either the first or both doses. Since there are a large number of people who need to be vaccinated the most crucial challenge is to find the required supply of vaccines. However, in the coming months We feel we will overcome this challenge," Dr Yadav said.

Earlier this week, the Gurugram District Administration had also administered doses to 200 specially-abled citizens of Gurugram. To make sure that these citizens are not left out of the vaccination net, the Gurugram district administration has also sought assistance from several civil society bodies to get information about specially-abled citizens and the most efficient ways to bring the vaccines to them.

With Gurugram having received close to 6,000 doses of COVISHIELD and 2,000 doses of COVAXIN, the District Administration has now resumed vaccination drives for those aged between 18 and 44 years. The government's inoculation drive for this age group had been halted for the last few days due to vaccines running out.

And with drive-through vaccinations in Gurugram having received a favourable response, the District Administration also conducted drive-through vaccinations for the 18-44 age group during weekends in which more than 800 doses of vaccines were administered.

Limited vaccines and a high number of people queuing up to get vaccinated however resulted in a situation of chaos leaving many citizens who were not able to get vaccinated angry and frustrated at the way the system had been set up.

In the coming days, the Gurugram District Administration is making arrangements for walk-in vaccinations for this age group as well. But even as Gurugram residents look to book slots in Delhi and Noida for lack of vaccines in their own city, these NCR cities are also running out fast - much like many other states across the country.