After the launch of “Vaccine Express” in the rural areas, the Bihar government rolled out similar vaccination vans for the urban areas with an aim to vaccinate maximum number of people at their doorsteps. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar took the initiative for ‘Vaccine Express’ in the presence of Deputy Chief ministers-Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi- along with the Health Minister Mangal Pandey .
He admired the health department for this idea of plying vaccine vans in the cities to speed up inoculation of larger section of the population. Similar vans were run for the rural areas of the state in May end. In a speech, he said a total of 718 vaccine express vans are moving around in the villages and 121 such vehicles will start taking rounds of different localities of urban areas to help people.
The chief minister said that every van is said to inoculate 200 citizens daily and that the state government is aiming to vaccinate maximum number of its citizens by the end of the year.
Bihar has been carrying vaccination of people in the age group of 18-44 and those above 45 years. Battling second wave of this devastating virus, Bihar has been from the begging emphasising on the twin weapons of testing and maximum vaccination of people to rein in the pandemic.
To take action for clinical examination for COVID, the state government had launched testing vans for the rural areas to conduct RT-PCR tests of larger number of people in the villages and are successfully conducting around 1000 RT-PCR tests daily.
COVID-19 second wave continues to be on the wane in Bihar due to the sustained efforts put in by the state government which recently extended lockdown for the fourth time till June 8. On Wednesday fewer than 50 new cases were reported and 1,158 people tested positive.
According to the health department, the death graph reached 5,268, a rise of 46 since Tuesday, while the total number of positive cases stood at 7. 09 lakh. The number of recovered patients was 6. 91 lakhs. The recovery rate was 97. 48 per cent the previous day.
Bihar has 12,590 cases at present. The state has been worried by the devastating second wave by which it was struck in the beginning of April. Since then, nearly 4,000 people have died while close to five lakhs have been infected.
On the vaccination front, 1. 05 crore people have received their vaccines so far. Bihar population in 2021 is closely to be 12. 7 crore. Altogether 16. 11 lakh people in the 18-44 age group have received their vaccines since May 8.
The Bihar chief minister has said though the infection level has been lowering now, but he has directed officials not to lower guards and keep adding up facilities for the future challenges.
He said the state health department is regularly taking feedback from the grassroots from ministers in-charge of the districts as well as from the legislators for more effective work.
The Bihar government’s innovative Home Isolation Tracking (HIT) App has been praised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for their great services. The ‘HIT COVID App’ has been developed by the Bihar State Electronics Development Corporation (BELTRON) under the guidance of the health department.
Giving detail of the app, Additional Chief Secretary Health Pratyaya Amrit has said that an officer has been appointed in every district, where a special team has been constituted for better care of home quarantined patients.
As part of the exercise, 80,000 ASHA or Auxiliary Nurse Midwife workers and 15,000 rural health workers trained by the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS) have been engaged for a door-to-door survey of COVID patients in home isolation.