BMC centres will run out of Covid-19 vaccines soon

Mumbai has 17 public vaccination centres, which see around 16 to 20 vaccinations a day while the 125 private vaccination centres see 150 to 170.

Mumbai: Even as both Mumbai and Maharashtra are experiencing a surge in Covid-19 cases, the BMC’s current stock of 450 Covaxin doses is expected to run out by March 31. Covishield and Covovax vaccines have been out of stock since mid-December. “We have asked the state government for fresh stock, but we are also witnessing low uptake at centres,” said a BMC health official.

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Mumbai has 17 public vaccination centres, which see around 16 to 20 vaccinations a day while the 125 private vaccination centres see 150 to 170. Dr Gautam Bhansali, chief coordinator of private hospitals for Covid-19 cases and vaccinations, said the vaccine uptake in private vaccination centres was also low. “Since the symptoms are milder and people are getting better, they are unwilling to be vaccinated,” he said. “So private vaccination centres are not purchasing the vaccines much, fearing wastage.”

Meanwhile, the state has been seeing a surge in new and active cases, and at present is contributing to 21 percent of the country’s Covid-19 cases. On March 16, the Centre wrote to the Maharashtra health department after the positivity rate started climbing up, and asked health officials to step up daily testing. It has also asked the state to follow a five-fold strategy of test, track, treat, vaccinations and adherence to the Covid-19 appropriate behaviour of physical distancing, wearing masks and maintaining hand hygiene.

Dr Nitin Ambadekar, director of health services, said the department was sending RTPCR-positive Covid-19 samples for genome sequencing. “Our observation, confirmed by the genome testing, is that XBB.1.16, the sub-variant of Omicron, is driving the present surge,” he said. “The state has around 1 lakh doses of Covaxin, and people should get vaccinated.”

The city, which currently has 558 Covid-19 active cases, on Sunday saw 123 new cases, of which 106 were asymptomatic. The state has 2,117 active cases and saw 397 new ones on Sunday.

Doctors say they are seeing a rise in cases, but there is nothing to worry about, as there are no hospitalisations. “We are seeing both Covid-19 and H3N2 cases with similar complaints of fever, cough and cold and bodyache,” said Dr Hemlata Arora, internal medicine and infectious diseases expert at Nanavati Max Super Speciality Hospital in Vile Parle. “Covid-29 patients are recovering faster and have no lung inflammation and no real complications.”

Dr Arora said that when a virus was new, it caused devastation but then kept mutating to become milder and milder. Even the flu took the same path,” she said. “Covid-19 is now part of our life, just like the flu viruses. Whenever there is temperature change/climate change, we see a surge in respiratory virus cases like Covid-19 and H3N2.”

Dr Vasant Nagvekar, an infectious disease expert, said that all the Covid-19 cases in the city were mild. “The majority don’t require treatment,” he said. “The present weather has been conducive to the flourishment of the virus, and that’s why we are seeing the surge. Hopefully in two to three weeks, the cases will start coming down.”