Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation makes special offers to attract people to take booster doses against Covid

In order to attract youth to get their booster dose, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation has planned to introduce some freebies at the new Covid vaccination centres; starting Saturday, the corporation will have centres at malls and supermarkets in Navi Mumbai wherein the ones who go for booster dose will be given a coupon for lucky draws

In order to attract youth to get their booster dose, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has planned to introduce some freebies at the new vaccination centres.

A beneficiary gets his booster dose against Covid in Navi Mumbai. (BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT PHOTO)

The response for the booster dose has been very poor and the civic body is planning to focus on the students as Navi Mumbai is an educational hub.

“With booster doses for 18 years and above being free now, we have decided to come up with strategies to attract youngsters. For the 65 years and above age group, we were having person-to-person contact by calling them over the phone. Now, for the 18 years-plus population, we are coming up with new centres that will not only allow them to get vaccinated but we will also give out some coupons or have lucky draws,” said Abhijit Bangar, NMMC commissioner.

While around 12.39 lakh people in Navi Mumbai have got both the doses, 13.82 lakh have got their first dose and only 1.15 lakh have received the booster. Of the total booster doses, 10,517 have taken them at NMMC centres in one week.

In a review meeting by Bangar, it was decided to continue with the vaccination conducted in schools to complete the second dose of the vaccination from the 15-to-18 years age group.

With the opening of all the schools, the challenge the corporation is facing is the lack of centres for vaccination. “We even thought of having the centres at schools on weekends but we lack manpower. We reduced around 1,500 manpower hired during Covid and now have around 500. If we get a good response, we can consider hiring more manpower,” he added.