Covid "Vaccine Express" In Bihar Cities After Successful Run In Villages

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flagged off Tika Express in cities after the success of the vaccination campaign in rural areas

After the successful launch of "Vaccine Express" in the rural areas, the Bihar government on Thursday rolled out similar vaccination vans for the urban areas with an aim to inoculate maximum number of people at their doorstep. Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flagged off ''Vaccine Express'' in the presence of Deputy Chief Ministers - Tarkishore Prasad and Renu Devi and state health minister Mangal Pandey. The Chief Minister praised the health department for the innovative idea of running vaccine vans in cities to speed up inoculation of a larger section of the population. Similar vans were run for the rural areas of the state in end May. In his speech, Nitish Kumar said, a total of 718 vaccine vans are moving around in the villages and similarly 121 such vehicles will start taking the rounds at different localities in urban areas to help people get the jab. The Chief Minister said that every van is tasked with inoculating 200 people daily. He added that the state government is aiming to vaccinate maximum number of people by the end of the year. Bihar has been vaccinating people in the age group of 18-44 and those above 45 years simultaneously. In a bid to expedite testing, the state government had recently launched vans in the rural areas to do RT-PCR tests of a larger number of people. Such vans are conducting around 1,000 RT-PCR tests daily.