80-year-old rides bike 70 km to get first shot of Covid vaccine in Ranchi

A retired school teacher who claims he is 80 years old, rode his motorcycle almost 70 km on Monday morning to Ranchi's Sadar Hospital to get the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine.

The second phase of the Covid-19 vaccination programme started on Monday under which citizens aged 60 years and above, and those aged 45 years and above with comorbidities would be inoculated.

Ramkishore Sahu, a resident of Tanzamdih village under Ranchi's Tamar block, reached Sadar Hospital at 9 am but could get the first dose only after a two-hour long wait.

While he was satisfied with the vaccine, the senior citizen regretted that his wife could not accompany him because he did not have another helmet.

"I reached here at 9 am. It doesn't matter that I had to wait for two hours as it was the first day. I felt no discomfort after getting the vaccine. I will now ride back to my village. The only regret is that my wife couldn't come with me as we have only one helmet. I will now buy one for her today itself and bring her tomorrow," Sahu said.

He added, "I have no health issues, not even blood pressure or diabetes. But I was keen to get the vaccine as it will not only protect me from the infection but also protect others. None of my family members stopped me from taking the jab. People should come forward to get the vaccine as this is the only way out to check the spread of the pandemic."

Vaccination for the second phase started late at almost every centre across the state on Day 1. Long queues could be seen at few centres as people were made to wait due to some technical reasons including verification of their identities.

"Vaccination was successfully carried out at all government and private centres on Day 1. People were very interested in taking the vaccine, which is a very positive sign. We are going to scale up the number of vaccination centres across the entire state. Some centres witnessed crowding as the process started late there. But things will be spruced up from tomorrow," state nodal officer (vaccination) Dr Ajit Prasad.

Mismanagement could be seen at Ranchi's Sadar hospital where people were kept waiting for hours in the name of verification of identity.

Three vaccination rooms and one observation room was set up for the purpose. While vaccination for the second dose of health care workers was carried out in one of the rooms, inoculation of front line workers and senior citizens for the first dose was done in two other rooms.

People were seen violating the Covid-19 protocols like wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

"I came here after completing online registration. But, here I was asked to go through the verification process first. When I approached for the same, I was told that people who came for the second dose would be dealt first and thereafter the verification process would start," said a senior citizen Anand Shankar Mohanty.

Women residing at an old age home at Hesag in Ranchi's Hatia locality were also administered the vaccine on Monday. The district administration facilitated the transportation of these women for vaccination at Doranda's community health centre.