Mumbai: 1.5 lakh beneficiaries give second dose a miss

Almost 1

Almost 1.5 lakh beneficiaries in the state, including 40,000 in Mumbai, have not taken their second vaccine jab. A majority comprise healthcare workers (HCWs) and frontline workers (FLWs) who were the first to be vaccinated at the beginning of the mass immunisation programme in January, said public health officials. Doctors said giving the second dose a skip could hamper efforts to protect the populace from Covid-19.

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Both vaccines — Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin and Covishield, manufactured by the Serum Institute of India (SII) have two shots. The trial phase for each of the two-dose vaccines showed that after a certain time, the rate of immunity to Covid-19 plateaued with just one dose but the second dose helped boost the immunity further.

However, lack of awareness and fear among citizens is holding back many first time beneficiaries from taking the second shot, which is mandatory as per the Union Health Ministry’s guidelines.

“Almost 1.5 lakh beneficiaries who took the first dose and were scheduled to take the second dose have missed their appointment dates. We are trying to reach, counsel and motivate them to take the second shot which will boost their immunity further,” said Dr Archana Patil, director of Maharashtra health and service.

The second dose of Covishield is given after 12 weeks of the first jab and the second dose of Covaxin is given after four-six weeks after the first dose.

In the state, so far, 2.8 crore people have been vaccinated of which 37 lakh have taken the second dose on their scheduled time. But it has been observed that most of the defaulters are HCWs and FLWs. “We are also taking help from ASHA workers to reach these defaulters and talk to them. We need to understand the reason why they aren’t taking the second dose,” said Dr Dilip Patil, state immunisation officer.

In Mumbai, around 40,000 beneficiaries haven’t taken the second dose. The Covid-19 ward war rooms are contacting the defaulters.

Various reasons have been cited for the default—the presumption that one dose is adequate, fear of side effects from the second dose.

“As known, after inoculation, some develop minor side effects like fever and body ache. This often discourages them from taking the second shot. But having minor health issues are good signs which indicate that the vaccine is effective,” said Dr Mohan Joshi, dean of Lokmanya Tilak General Hospital, also known as Sion Hospital.

Witnessing a low turnout among HCWs and FLWs for the second dose, recently, the central government has directed all the state government and union territories to speedily vaccinate these groups.

With multiple mutations of Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes Covid-19, doctors insist on taking the second dose as, at present, it is the only protective shield to fight against the pandemic.

“No vaccine provides 100% protection but, it has been observed that infection among people with two shots has been mild. The death rate among fully immunised beneficiaries is limited across the state. Though, we still don’t know how the present vaccines would be effective on the mutated viruses, but, skipping the second dose won’t do any help,” said Dr Rahul Pandit, part of the Covid-19 task force.