To get a clear picture about vax status of citizens, civic body comes up with questionnaire to be sent to all wards; move initiated as people from outside the city, too, have got their doses here
A health worker administers a dose of vaccine to a woman at BYL Nair Hospital. Pic/Ashish Raje
In a bid to peg how many Mumbaikars are yet to take the second dose of the COVID vaccine, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is set to launch an initiative wherein it will send questionnaires to its ward offices as well as vaccination centres. The questionnaire will ask citizens their name, age, contact number as well as if they are residents of the city and where they got their first dose of vaccine from. This initiative was necessitated as a number of people who are not from Mumbai have also got their vaccine doses here, making it difficult for the civic body to gauge the real picture when it comes to its citizens.
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Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC, said, “In Mumbai, as per our records, there are close to 6.66 lakh beneficiaries who are yet to take their second dose of Covishield and 66,000 who are supposed to take the second dose of Covaxin. However, the records can be misleading as many of them are not residents of Mumbai. To find the actual number of Mumbaikars awaiting their second dose, we thought of this mechanism.”
Kakani said BMC has developed a software for the same. “The database of people who have taken vaccines has been sent to respective wards. The beneficiaries will get a call and specific questions will be asked,” he said.
“These are simple questions to find it the beneficiary has taken their first dose and second dose, and what is the registered mobile number of the beneficiary. It will help us know if the person has taken their doses from Mumbai or elsewhere and also find if they have missed their second dose,” said Kakani.
The civic body will send the questionnaire to ward officers in the next few days, following which the ward officers will decide how to implement the survey in their wards. “The ward officers will plan how to reach out the beneficiaries in their wards and execute it accordingly. Also, the people who haven’t taken their second dose yet and are showing vaccine hesitancy, will be counselled and motivated to get vaccinated,” said Kakani.
So far, 1,72,44,806 doses have been administered in the city, of which 97,98,141 are first doses and 74,46,665 are second doses.
The civic body has also started night vaccination from this week so that more people get access to the centres. “There will be a night centre in each ward which will operate from 6pm to 10 pm. This will help people who work till late, street dwellers, hawkers, etc,” said Kakani.
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