BMC to give health workers only three s to get inoculated as it races to finish giving the first of the two doses by February 14
Health workers at the Nair hospital’s vaccination centre. Pic/Ashish Raje
Only 58 per cent of the targeted number of healthcare workers took the vaccine on the eighth day of vaccination. Aiming to give the first of the two shots to all registered health workers by February 14, the civic body has decided to give only three chances to get inoculated. Many health workers have been postponing taking the shot as the exercise is voluntary.
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After the first week of trial and errors, the BMC adopted various methods to improve vaccination figures. After introducing the walk-in facility at all centres without the restriction of the daily list, the percentage increased. But with numbers having reduced again, inoculating all registered health workers continues to be a huge task.
“The dose is voluntary, so we are seeing that many are taking it lightly and postponing their appointments. There might be queues in the last few days and healthcare workers will blame the corporation for not giving them the vaccine. So we have decided to send alerts only thrice. If they don’t turn up, they will not get the jab,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner.
“The BMC is not depending only on the messages sent through CoWIN app. We are calling literally every registered healthcare professional through our war rooms. So registered healthcare workers can’t say that they didn’t get the message,” said an officer with the health department.
Most of the people who turned up to get vaccinated on Thursday went to the Ambedkar hospital in Kandivli. More than 500 healthcare workers went to KEM, Nair and Rajawadi hospitals. The newly opened vaccination centre at SevenHills also vaccinated 331 people. The number of people taking the Covaxin jab at JJ Hospital remains low. Of the 800 expected healthcare workers, only 180 have turned up so far.
2 booths at NESCO
After starting five booths at the SevenHills Hospital on Wednesday, the BMC will start two vaccination booths at the NESCO COVID care centre. “Initially we will start two booths. The booths may increase after taking a review of the response,” said an officer. The BMC plans to increase the capacity of the vaccination to 7,900 per day.
Vaccination figures
KEM hospital: 578
Sion hospital: 445
Cooper hospital: 337
Nair hospital: 548
VN Desai hospital: 211
Ambedkar hospital: 728
Rajawadi hospital: 545
BKC Covid Centre: 380
Bhabha hospital: 270
JJ hospital: 17
SevenHills hospital: 331
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