COVID-19 vaccination drive: Low turnout continues on third day too

A beneficiary being vaccinated

As the turnout for the vaccination drive continues to be low, the civic body, left with doses for around 65,000 people, is in no hurry to procure more of them. The BMC calculated the number of more people it can vaccinate after factoring in the second dose to be given to recipients of the first dose. The BMC had received 1,32,500 doses of Covishield as part of the first consignment. On the other hand, the BMC is also clueless if it has to ensure that all registered health workers are vaccinated before moving on to phase two.

Health workers at BYL Nair Hospital's vaccination centre on Wednesday. Pic/Ashish Raje

The third day of vaccination again saw duplication of names and technical glitches in the CoWIN app. On Wednesday, 1,728 number health workers were vaccinated out of the 3,300 beneficiaries on the list. There were seven cases of minor adverse effects such as giddiness, fever and others. The drive will resume on Friday.

With the turnout for the drive being around 50 per cent, BMC officials feel that the doses should be enough for some time. Dr Mangla Gomare, executive health officer, BMC, said, "We have to keep aside the second doses for health workers who have taken the first dose. As such, we can vaccinate only 64,000 to 65,000 more health workers with what we have left."

1.5 months for phase 1
With the vaccination drive being conducted only four days a week, the civic body said it would need at least another month and a half to inoculate the registered health workers. This will delay the vaccination of other frontline workers and of those with co-morbidities and aged above 50 years. However, although the drive is voluntary, the health department will be calling the registered workers two more times to get the jabs.

Gomare said, "We don't know yet if before moving to the next phase of the drive, we have to ensure that all registered health workers take the vaccine. With respect to these queries, we will have to wait for the central government's guidelines." The turnout of people increased only slightly on Wednesday with 52 per cent people coming to take the jab amid technical issues. "These issues are being tackled at each step with the help of our IT teams," said a civic health official.

BMC lets those interested move up the queue
The civic body is giving the COVID-19 vaccination to those hospital staff interested in taking it, even if they are not in the day's list. Bhabha Hospital in Bandra saw various staff who were not listed for Wednesday interested in taking the vaccine. The BMC registered such people on CoWIN and gave them the vaccine. "We are giving people the vaccine on the spot and their data is being fed into the central government's system," an official said.