‘10% citizens are fully vaccinated in Mumbai’

BMC’s data shows between January 16 and July 31, 7,223,853 vaccine doses have been administered and 1,771,396 citizens are fully vaccinated

Over 1.7 million or more than 10% of the city’s population is fully vaccinated as of July 31, 2021, according to data of Mumbai civic body. The city’s population is 12.4 million, according to the census of 2011.

Of the 1.7 million fully vaccinated citizens, 742,758 are in the 45-59 age group. (HT File)

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s data shows between January 16 and July 31, 7,223,853 vaccine doses have been administered and 1,771,396 citizens are fully vaccinated. Of the 1.7 million fully vaccinated citizens, 742,758 are in the 45-59 age group, 619,871 are senior citizens above 60 years of age and 101,733 are in the 18-45 age group. Further, 425,202 vaccine doses have also been administered to frontline and health care workers, of which 292,829 citizens are fully vaccinated.

According to BMC officials, they have the capacity to vaccinate 100,000 citizens on a daily basis, provided that many vaccine doses are supplied. HT had on July 29 reported how the city has reported a 23% drop in the number of vaccinations conducted in the first 28 days of July (1,499,125) compared to June (1,949,878), according to data. The data reveals that vaccination at public centres has increased marginally in July compared to June, but the vaccination at private hospitals has seen a significant fall of around 50%.

Experts, on the other hand, say the current speed of vaccination should be increased in order to have more relaxations. Dr Madhav Sathe, a microbiology professor at Nair Hospital’s college, said, “We need to increase the speed of vaccination. However, if you may ask our epidemiologist, they may say that over 5 million citizens are probably exposed to Covid-19. As we have around 0.7 million Covid cases, when we multiply their contacts, the number comes to 3.5 million.”

Dr Sathe added, “This means at least 3.5 million citizens have directly or indirectly got infected to Covid-19. On top of this, you add 1.7 million fully vaccinated and considering that around 0.2 million are non-residents of Mumbai, we will be able to infer here that around 5 million citizens are directly or indirectly protected as they may have antibodies. To have major relaxations in lockdown, around 80% of the citizens have developed antibodies. Post this, we can allow citizens to travel in trains, watch movies in theatres, etc. Even now, fully vaccinated citizens should be allowed to use trains.”

Meanwhile, on Monday, 77,511 citizens were vaccinated in the city, and 62 bedridden citizens were vaccinated as part of BMC’s door-to-door drive. Gangadharan Balachandran, 102, was among the bedridden citizens vaccinated. He is a resident of K-East ward, and was administered Covaxin. No adverse effects were reported.

Due to shortage of vaccine doses, on Tuesday, all public vaccination centres will not remain functional. The BMC will issue a list on social media by Tuesday early morning. On Wednesday, it is expected that the centres will remain closed considering the fresh stock will arrive on Tuesday and distribution process will be carried out on Wednesday.