Nitish launches mega drive for inoculation of 60 million in six months

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on

Monday launched an ambitious mega drive for inoculating 60 million people in the state against COVID-19 within six months.

The campaign was inaugurated by the chief minister via video conferencing and it would entail administering of jabs to at least "3.30 lakh people daily" at 6000 vaccination centres across the state.

Speaking on the occasion, Kumar expressed satisfaction over the fact that despite being the second most populous state, Bihar occupies the 21st spot in terms of the spread of the contagion.

"We are staring at the possibility of a third wave. Vaccination is the only effective safeguard against a fresh spurt. Nonetheless I request all my people, with folded hands, that they do not let their guard down and take all precautions", said Kumar.

According to the health department, over 1.38 crore people had received the jabs till Sunday. The state has a total population of about 13 crore.

After achieving the six crore vaccination target, more than half of the state's population would be inoculated.

Deputy chief ministers-Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi- health minister Mangal Pandey and his colleague in the education department Vijay Kumar Chaudhary participated in the launch programme.

Chief Secretary Tripurari Sharan, Development Commissioner Amir Subhani and Additional Chief Secretary Health Pratyaya Amrit also attended the event virtually.

Earlier, at a meeting of the high-powered crisis management group that the chief minister chaired, a decision was taken to relax the restrictions imposed in the wake of the lockdown further.

As per the guidelines of unlock 3.0, the night curfew will now begin at 9 P.M. and be over by 5 A.M. Shops will be allowed to remain open till 7 P.M.

Barring those dealing in grocery, vegetable, dairy, meat and fish, all shops shall continue to do business on alternate days.

Offices, both private and government, would now be allowed to function with full strength, but these will have to close down by 5 P.M. every day.

Public parks, which were until now ordered closed, will be made available to morning walkers and other visitors from 6 A.M. to noon.

Cinema halls, shopping malls, educational institutions and places of worship will, however, remain closed.

The aforementioned relaxations will come into effect from June 23 (Wednesday) and remain in force till July 06.

Complete lockdown was clamped on the state on May 05 following an explosive rise in the number of people getting infected by the virus as also those succumbing to it.

Fresh cases and fatalities have, however, now come down to a trickle.

On Sunday, only 294 people had tested positive while seven had died. The recovery rate had risen to 98.23 per cent while active casload had come down to 3188.