Covid-19 vaccination drive sees 50.25% turnout in Maharashtra

State to give second dose from Monday; Maha sees 3,670 new cases, 36 new deaths, taking tally 2,056,575 and toll to 51,451

Despite the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state and city, the response to the vaccination drive has been dwindling in Maharashtra.

A health worker collects swab sample of a passenger at Dadar Terminus on Friday. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

After reporting a daily caseload of less than 3,000 for more than 20 days, the state has been breaching the mark for the past three days. On Friday, the state saw 3,670 cases, taking the tally to 2,056,575 and toll to 51,451, with 36 new deaths. Mumbai too reported more than 500 cases for the third day in a row, after staying below the mark for more than two weeks. With 599 new cases, the city’s tally touched 312,902 and toll 11,409 with 4 new deaths.

The vaccination drive saw 50.25% turnout on Friday, as 40,000 citizens got inoculated at 796 vaccination centres that have the target of 100 beneficiaries each.

With 23,012 vaccinations, frontline workers outnumbered health care workers (16,988) in daily vaccination on Friday. On Friday, the BMC vaccinated 6,361 beneficiaries in Mumbai that included 2,382 health care workers and 3,979 frontline workers.

Overall, in the last one month the BMC has vaccinated 107,725 vaccine beneficiaries.

As of February 9, the state has 1,054,822 healthcare and 691,222 frontline workers registered on CoWIN app. The total number of beneficiaries to receive the shots stands at 648,573, including 112,952 frontline workers.

A total of 5,524 were given Covaxin, while remaining were given Covishield doses.

The initial rate of the vaccination was over 60% after the launch on January 16 and dropped to below 50% over last few weeks even as the number of centres improved from 285 on the day of launch. Maharashtra has 19,72,400 shots of the Covaxin (1,70,400) and Covishield (18,02,000) vaccine provided by the Centre.

“We have been vaccinating around 40,000 beneficiaries daily. We expect the response from the healthcare workers to improve and will have to gear up the drive. The turnout is high in districts where our department has strictly implemented it. We have been taken the vaccination drive very seriously and if the turnout remains the same, we will have to launch an awareness drive,” said state health minister Rajesh Tope.

According to the officials from Mantralaya, the state health department’s approach has been sluggish towards the drive.

“Maharashtra is lagging behind other states. A few doctors who lead the department have themselves not taken the vaccine,” an officer who is closely associated with the drive said requesting anonymity.

Dr Shashank Joshi, who is part of the task force constituted for the vaccination, said, “There is hesitancy among doctors and health care workers because of the fear about immunogenicity and tests of the vaccine. There should be a more aggressive programme for awareness among beneficiaries. The Centre should decentralise the

drive by roping in private sector and bringing more transparency.”

The state will start giving the second dose to the beneficiaries from Monday. The state is waiting for the Central guidelines to begin the round of second dose to healthcare worker who have completed the mandatory period of 28 days from the first shot. “We are beginning it from Monday. We expect the guidelines by then,” said Dr Dilip Patil, state immunisation officer.

The BMC on Friday said the second dosage of Covid-19 vaccination will start in Mumbai from Monday, instead of the earlier plan to start it from Saturday.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “We are planning to complete the cycle of 28 days that will happen on Saturday. After this, the second dosage will be administered starting Monday.”

The state has 31,474 active cases after 2,422 were discharged from hospitals. The recovery rate stands at 95.91%, while its case fatality rate stands at 2.5%.