Civic officials say the home-vaccination drive had a slow start, but requests started pouring in when others saw their neighbours getting inoculated against COVID
A health worker inoculates a senior citizen at his residence with a dose of Covaxin vaccine on August 5. File pic/AFP
Within a month, a total of 2,749 bedridden beneficiaries have been inoculated under a special home-vaccination drive launched for them. Of these recipients, 2,673 have got their first shot and 76 both the doses. The gap between two doses of Covaxin is 28 days.
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The drive did not receive as much response when it was launched on August 2. However, over time, the civic body was flooded with requests, as several people were encouraged after seeing their neighbours get vaccinated at home, ward health officials said.
The BMC had conducted the trial in K East ward (Andheri and Vile Parle) on July 30, and vaccinated 37 citizens, including 14 from old age homes. BMC’s community health teams conducted door-to-door surveys and collected data of around 4,500 bedridden people across the city. The drive was finally launched on August 2.
A civic official said people are stuck in bed for several reasons. “Some are aged, some handicapped and others are ill. We make sure that the person is bedridden for at least six months [to be eligible for the drive]. A letter from a doctor and a consent letter from the person is necessary.”
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“Initially, we had data of 51 bedridden people in A ward. But as the drive was launched, we started getting requests in our ward war room and through corporators,” said Dr Prajakta Amberkar, medical officer of health, A ward (Fort, Nariman Point, Colaba).
Amberkar said that till now 60 people are vaccinated in A ward. “One vial of a vaccine has 10 doses. So, we have to wait for 10 requests from the same area, as the vial should be used within four hours after opening,” she added.
In E ward (Byculla), at least 143 people have received their shot. Dr Shailendra Gujar, medical officer of health E ward, said, “Earlier, we had data of a few bedridden people. But as the drive kicked in and people learnt about the advantage of the drive, more requests started coming in.”
Alka Sasane, assistant commissioner of H East ward (Bandra to Santacruz) and additional in-charge of L ward (Kurla), said that initially, people were reluctant to get vaccinated, but now the overall response has been increased. Details like, name, age, address, contact number, the reason for their illness, need to be sent on covidvacc2bedridden@gmail.com to avail the benefits of the home vaccination for the bedridden.
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