Covid-19 vaccine: July shots down by 20 per cent in Mumbai

Citizens wait for their shots at a civic camp in Dagdi chawl on July 30. Pic/Ashish Raje

July saw 20 per cent fewer vaccinations than the month of June when 21.6 lakh doses were given. In July, 17.9 lakh doses were administered. Of these, seven lakh were second doses. While the state government had aimed to vaccinate at least 70 per cent of the public before opening up further, the pace of vaccination has been slow.

The mass vaccination for those aged above 18 years was started in private hospitals in May. After the Supreme Court called vaccines being free to some and not to others as ‘arbitrary and irrational', the central government announced free vaccines for those aged 18 to 44 years at public centres from June 21. Although the vaccination drive was to quicken after that, figures suggest the opposite.

A woman gets vaccinated at a civic centre in Byculla on July 28. Pic/Ashish Raje

In March, when vaccination for the general public started, 9.2 lakh doses were administered. In April, 13 lakh and in May, 8.2 lakh doses were given. Most of them were given as a first dose. In June, 21.6 lakh vaccines were given in Mumbai out of which 18.37 were first doses. In July, public (civic as well as state) vaccination centres were shut for four days and ran in a limited manner for five to six days apart from the weekends when they are usually shut. A total of 10 lakh doses were given by 313 public centres, out of which 5.5 lakh were given as first doses and 4.5 lakh were given as second doses.

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Similarly, 7.9 lakh doses were given by 113 private centres, out of which 5.3 lakh were given as first doses and 2.6 lakh were given as second doses. "We are ready to give around one lakh doses at public centres every day but cannot have control over the vaccine supply," said a BMC official.

Until now, 54.52 lakh citizens have received the first dose and 17.71 lakh citizens have received both doses. Out of 72.23 lakh doses, over 90 per cent (67.5 lakh) were of Covishield, 4.6 lakh doses were of Covaxin and 14,108 were Sputnik V.

17,90,000
No. of doses given in July in the city

21,60,000
No . of doses given in June in Mumbai