Raigarh 1st district of state in 100% 1st dose COVID vaccination

Raipur, Aug 21: Raigarh has become the first district in the state to achieve 100% target for first dose of COVID vaccination. Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel has congratulated the health staff, administrative staff and conscious citizens in the district by posting a tweet. Collector Bhim Singh has described it as the result of the combined effort of the officers-employees and the people.
According to the information received from the Health Department, a target was set to vaccinate 10.42 lakh people out of the total population of 16.94 lakh in the district. Till August 19, 99.8 percent of the people had been vaccinated. With vaccination of the remaining 0.2 percent on August 20, 100% of the people in the district have got the first dose of the vaccine. In Sarangarh block, 1,780 people were vaccinated on the last day.
The most important role in the achievement of the target was played by the Block Medical Officer and Block Programme Managers who made the complete plan for the vaccination. Collector Bhim Singh has also played an important role in this achievement as he facilitated availability of 1 lakh doses to the district especially when other districts were struggling to get the vaccine at the state level for 2,000-4,000 doses.
He ran massive vaccination drive on June 26 besides constantly monitoring the entire vaccination work. He also visited door to door in Sarangarh and Lailunga to make people aware of benefits of vaccination. District Panchayat CEO Dr Ravi Mittal kept the district level planning and the employees of his department engaged in this vaccination work besides constantly monitoring the vaccination work.
Maintaining the cold chain, bringing the COVID vaccine from Raipur and then distributing it to the vaccination centers was also challenging, but Health Department technician Haldhar Yadav, DIO assistant Choleeshwar Patel and driver Linus Kerketta, frequently traveled from Dharamjgarh of Raigarh to Raipur and got the required vaccine doses for vaccination centers in the district even before the start of the vaccination session.
According to District Vaccination Officer Dr Bhanu Patel 100 percent vaccination is the result of combined effort of officers, employees and conscious citizens.