Covid Jabs for 18+ citizens to launch in 11 more districts today, says Yogi

LUCKNOW: Amid the surge in novel coronavirus cases and the state government's attempts to provide Covid-19 vaccines to all its citizens over 18 years, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Sunday announced that jabs for 18-44 age group to be launched in 11 more districts of the state on Monday.

Beneficiaries can register themselves online for the COVID-19 vaccine. The state government is receiving enough vaccines with help of the Central government, CM Yogi said. "Vaccine wastage had come down further," he added.

Yogi Adityanath:

The announcement comes a day after Adityanath said a massive coronavirus vaccination drive will be initiated for 18-44 years age group in the state from May 10. He said the drive will be conducted in 17 municipal corporations and Gautam Buddh Nagar area.

"The vaccination drive will be held in Aligarh, Agra, Prayagraj, Kanpur, Ghaziabad, Gorakhpur, Jhansi, Bareilly, Meerut, Moradabad, Lucknow, Varanasi, Saharanpur, Firozabad, Mathura-Vrindavan, Ayodhya and Shahjahanpur municipal corporations and Gautam Buddh Nagar," the CM said.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh'ss partial 'Corona curfew' has been extended by a week till 7 am on May 17 (Monday), informed the Additional Chief Secretary Navneet Sehgal earlier today.

Earlier, the restrictions were set to be lifted tomorrow morning.

During this period, all essential services will be allowed and vaccination drive will continue, stated Sehgal. It was also decided to intensify the sanitisation drive in all the 75 districts, he added.

He stated that the decision came after a meeting chaired by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today.

Earlier, speaking to reporters in Bareilly, Adityanath had said despite being the most populous state in the country, Uttar Pradesh is fighting the disease effectively.

He underlined that vaccination is the best way to defeat the infection, adding that 45 lakh vaccines have been administered to people above the age of 45 years.

In the age group of 18-44 years, more than one lakh vaccines have been administered. The vaccination for people in this age group started on May 1 for seven districts in the state, namely Lucknow, Kanpur, Prayagraj, Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Meerut and Bareilly, he said.

Talking about the achievements of his government in fighting the pandemic, the chief minister said, "There were doubts that COVID-19 positive cases will touch the one lakh-mark by May 5, and today is May 8. The count of fresh cases on Saturday stands at 26,847. We have proved to be successful in COVID management.

"The second doubt was that cases will increase during the panchayat polls. The panchayat elections ended on April 19, and there has been a continuous drop in the number of cases," he underlined.

The BJP leader said UP recorded the highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases at 38,055 on April 24, and the highest count of active cases of 3.10 lakh was recorded on April 30.

Meanwhile, Uttar Pradesh reported 23,333 new cases in last 24 hours, while 34,636 people are discharged in Uttar Pradesh. At present there are 2,33,981 active cases in the state, which has been reduced by 77,000 as compared to April 30.

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