9.76mn people in Maharashtra yet to receive their first vaccine dose

Around 9.76 million eligible people above 12 years in Maharashtra have not even taken their first dose

Around 9.76 million eligible people above 12 years in Maharashtra have not even taken their first dose since the Covid-19 vaccination began in the country 20 months ago, data shows. The state administration now fears that this hesitation will remain as the pandemic is moving towards its endemic stage.

A beneficiary gets inoculated with the booster dose inside an NMMT bus in Navi Mumbai Bachchan Kumar/HT Photo

Dr Sachin Desai, state vaccination officer, said the response to the inoculation drive is poor. “This is mainly because of the drop in the daily cases and the low severity of infection. We have been vaccinating around 50,000 people daily. Most of them are for the precautionary dose with a miniscule percentage for the second shot. People are not coming forward even for the first dose for various reasons.”

Of the 101.3 million eligible people above 12 years in the state, 91.54 million have received their first shot, while 76.29 million have been administered their second dose. As of Thursday, 8.78 million of the 45 million eligible people have got the precautionary or booster dose.

Among the 35 districts, the inoculation rate in the most urbanised districts like Mumbai and Pune has been more than 100%, while the districts with low human development index have been lagging behind. Nandurbar (72.13%), Nanded (77.45%), Akola (77.77%), Hingoli (78.27%), and Beed (78.51%) are the top five districts with lowest vaccination rate for the first dose.

Dr Desai said officials have been going door to door to convince people. “The task forces headed by collectors take a regular review and the teams visiting households take stock of the situation on a daily basis, but the response has been underwhelming,” he added.

Another health department official said the nearly 10 million people left out of the vaccination drive are unlikely to come forward. “These are the people who refused to get inoculated even during the peak of the second and third waves of Covid-19. They have never responded to our efforts”

Chief minister Eknath Shinde at the weekly cabinet meeting on Monday directed the administration to ramp up the drive.

As per the presentation made to the state cabinet, the state had 6,578 active patients, of whom 547 were hospitalised. As many as 98 of them were in intensive care units with 19 of them on ventilator. A total of 6,031of the total active patients had mild symptoms.