Mumbai: From 10k to 3k, sharp drop in Covid-19 booster doses

A woman gets a booster dose at BYL Nair Hospital, Mumbai Central. Pic/Ashish Raje

The footfall for precautionary doses at vaccination centres in the city has seen a sharp drop, from around 10,000 daily doses at the beginning to around 3,000 now. Health officials have attributed the dip to the receding third wave.

The precautionary dose was introduced on January 10 after the strong demand, at least for healthcare and frontline workers, around the third week of December last year, when cases started increasing. On the first day, 10,698 healthcare and frontline workers took the jab and the figure remained steady till January-end with an average of 9,765 daily doses. However, the numbers started dwindling after that.

Last week, from February 14 to 19, only 20,367 people took the booster shot with an average of 3,400 daily doses. The decline is despite the fact that many healthcare workers, who got infected during this wave, could not take the third jab earlier and were advised to wait for two weeks.

"In Mumbai, the peak of the third wave came between January 11 and 13 when more than 20,000 cases were reported daily. The booster shot drive started at that time and many healthcare and frontline workers took the jab. But as the wave receded and most of the people didn't have serious symptoms, the response faded. There isn't any major fear of the upcoming wave, so many are restraining from getting jabbed," said an official from the BMC. He added that senior citizens are still coming for the booster shot as they are among the vulnerable group.

Of the 5.80 lakh eligible citizens for the booster shot, only 3.21 lakh or 55 per cent have received it. Around 48 per cent of eligible healthcare workers have taken the shot while it was 61 per cent for frontline workers.

Adolescent vax also hit

The vaccination drive for adolescents has been hit due to the shortage of Covaxin. Only 3.46 lakh of the total target of 9.22 lakh children have taken the first dose and 1.08 lakh both the doses, till February 19.