Mumbai: Covaxin shortage hits vaccination drive for children

Number of daily vaccine dose drops to 3,000 over the past 19 days from around 10,000 in January, because of a range of issues

Shortage of Covaxin vaccine doses has hampered the vaccination drive for adolescents. Many centres have not administered doses for two-three days. Other issues like slow start, lukewarm response from schools and colleges, and receded third wave have also contributed to the slow pace of vaccination for the 15-17 years age group. The daily average of first doses has come down from 10,000 to 3,000 in the past two weeks.

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received a stock of 23,000 doses on Tuesday night which is not sufficient for more than two days.  “There was a shortage of Covaxin for the last few days. We received a stock of 23,000 doses on Tuesday and it will last for two days. We are following up but the supply is not in our hands,” said an official from the BMC. 

The city had started vaccination for adolescents on January 3. Though the state government has set a target of vaccinating 6,12,461 children in the age group in Mumbai, the BMC has increased the target to 9.22 lakh. However, after 45 days, the BMC reached one-third of its own target. 

Till Wednesday, only 3.39 lakh adolescents have received the first dose of vaccine and 77,440 of them also got the second dose. From January 3 to 27, around 10,400 daily doses were administered daily. But the number saw a dip and over the past 19 days, on an average only 3,063 received their first dose. On Tuesday only 1,763 received their first dose. The BMC now has a huge task to reach out to around 6 lakh adolescents in the coming days.

Many students who are appearing for their Std 10 and 12 exams are waiting to be vaccinated as they fear they will not be able to enter the exam centres without being fully vaccinated. “My son is appearing for the SSC exam. We went to a centre for vaccines yesterday, but they told us that there isn’t any stock of the vaccine and they even didn’t have any idea when the new stock will come,” said a parent from Goregaon, on the condition of anonymity.

There are various issues behind the slow vaccination drive. The civic corporation started the drive only at nine jumbo centres to reduce any risk of side effects of the vaccine. But as the vaccine drive started, city schools were declared to be shut due to the third wave and it became difficult to reach the students. Even after the reopening of schools and colleges the response was lukewarm. 
“We are following up to push the vaccination drive. Even we want to speed it up and will take initiative in that direction,” said a BMC officer.

Mobile centre for students

The BMC is starting mobile centres for vaccination of children from Friday. “We will provide mobile centres to the public as per demand rather than people coming to vaccination centres. It will start within two days,” said Additional BMC Commissioner Suresh Kakani.

23,000
No. of Covaxin doses received on Tuesday

"Exciting news! Mid-day is now on WhatsApp Channels Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest news!" Click here!