Lucknow, April 8 : The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh will launch a special focused covid vaccination drive from Thursday. The drive will focus on the beneficiaries of different social groups who are above 45 years age. The drive will continue till April 23. Chief medical officers in all districts of the state will be in charge of this drive. Mission Director, National Health Mission Uttar Pradesh, Aparna Upadhyay, said that journalists, media workers, retail and wholesale shopkeepers will be vaccinated on Thursday and Friday. Bank and insurance employees will get their vaccine on Saturday while teachers of schools and colleges will be vaccinated from 12th to 14th of this month. On April 15 and 16, auto rickshaw drivers, taxi drivers and employees of construction sector will be vaccinated while on April 17 to 19, government employees and officers other than frontline workers will be vaccinated. Lawyers and workers of judiciary will be vaccinated on April 20 and 21 while private sector employees will be vaccinated on April 22 and 23. Meanwhile, the state is witnessing a sharp increase in the Covid cases. With 6,023 new Covid patients in the last 24 hours, the State currently has 31,987 active cases. 40 deaths were reported on Wednesday. /IANS