02 March,2021 07:11 AM IST | Mumbai | Chetna Sadadekar
Mahendra Doshi, 85, receives the vaccine in the presence of Hindu Mahasabha Hospital Medical Director Dr Vaibhav Deogirkar. Also seen is Doshi’s wife Usha, 82, who was vaccinated. Pic/Rajesh Gupta
Faced by persistent glitches in the CoWIN app that caused massive delays and hurdles during the first day of the vaccination drive that covers senior citizens and comorbid adults above 45 years, people participated in the drive across centres in huge numbers. Many complained about the mismanagement and the long wait as the app's server was down till 12 pm. But once the system was up, all that mattered was the jab.
A woman gets vaccinated at the Dahisar Jumbo COVID Centre in Dahisar East on Monday. Pic/Anurag Ahire
The turnout on Day One of Phase II was 78 per cent. The senior citizens saw a turnout of 165 per cent. The total number of people who came was 7,530, while 9,700 were expected. The number of comorbid given the shot was 260, senior citizens were numbered at 1,722 while 1,200 had been expected to come. The rest of the inoculated were frontline and health workers. The total number of inoculated beneficiaries has reached 2,28,840.
Because of CoWIN's failure, the health and frontline workers were mainly affected as many had to cancel the OPD sessions and duty hours at their hospitals and had to wait for long hours. Many who came to get their second shot returned, thinking it was better to come later when crowds reduce. Monday mainly remained the day for senior citizens - some furious and some patient.
While there have been apprehensions among health and frontline workers with regard to the vaccine, many senior citizens were excited to get it. Many thought the vaccine will give them the immunity they have been wishing for. Unworried about the side effects, Mahendra Dev, 63, said, "Me and my mother-in-law, who is 84 years old and also happens to have her birthday today, thought that it would be a good time to get ourselves vaccinated and as we easily got the registration done on Monday morning on the portal, we came down to the centre without any worries."
No clarity about Tuesday
It remains unclear whether the issues will be resolved and if Tuesday will see a similar scenario. The civic body said that since the maintenance and the operation are centrally done by the central government, there is little to nothing they can do. "Apart from notifying the government, we could not do much and had to request those who had come in to wait for the system to start," said officials.
The registration process, on the other hand, had started online on Monday morning. Many easily got themselves registered on the portal and were given slots for vaccination. However, those who chose to walk in faced major issues as names and documents were not getting updated immediately.
The city also did not see any of the major private hospitals, which have been conducting the vaccination sessions recently, operating on Monday. And out of the 44 vaccination centres that were operating last week, only 26 were working on Monday and 97 units were operating.
The number of healthcare workers given the first dose on Monday was 631 and those who took their second shot were 2,650. Whereas the number of frontline workers vaccinated on Monday was 2,267. Only two cases saw adverse effects.
While Monday just saw five government facilities operating for the senior citizens and for those aged between 45 and 59 years with comorbid conditions, on Tuesday all government and civic hospitals that are running vaccination centres will be accommodating the beneficiaries for Phase II along with three private hospitals which were working even on Monday.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, "It was a good turnout and thus we are activating more centres for senior citizens. We are prepared with 103 sessions to be conducted on Tuesday across the 23 hospitals. We are also trying to correct the glitches in CoWIN through the Government of India."
