Only a few takers for booster dose, drive yet to pick up

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) report, in the last two days, 3,117 beneficiaries took the booster dose, of which 2,772 were in the age group of 45-60

Mumbai The response to the precautionary jab remained poor on Monday, the second day of the inoculation drive aimed to vaccinate the adult population.

A few private hospitals couldn’t start the booster dose programme as they didn’t have enough stock (Praful Gangurde)

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) report, in the last two days, 3,117 beneficiaries took the booster dose, of which 2,772 were in the age group of 45-60.

Joy Chakraborty, COO, PD Hinduja Hospital said that on the second day, 235 people came for the shot. “The response continues to remain poor. Last year, during the peak, we saw 2,500-2,600 people coming for vaccination in a day,” he said. The hospital has vaccine stock for the next three days. He further added that after the prices of both Covisheild and Covaxin were slashed, both the doses were available for ₹386 at the hospital.

Dr Santosh Shetty, CEO of Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, said that before the booster dose for the adult population was announced, they saw 25-30 people coming for vaccination. “It is now a little more. Today, of the 85 people who had come for the jab, 50 were for the booster dose,” he said. This hospital too has a stock to last the next three days. “We have around 350-400 doses left and have ordered more. We were told it will take a couple of days for the fresh stock to arrive,” he added.

A few private hospitals couldn’t start the booster dose programme as they didn’t have enough stock. N Santhanam, CEO of Breach Candy Hospital, said that they have ordered more vials, but they are yet to arrive.

Also, after the prices of the vaccines were slashed, these vaccination centres are revising their rates. Both the SII and Bharat Biotech said the price differential for the present stock with the private vaccination centre will be compensated in the form of cost-free doses.

Slow pace of 12-15 years inoculation

The state’s financial capital continues to lag behind in vaccinating 12-15 year olds with only 14.25% (55,601) of the eligible population taking the first dose since March 16.

As per estimates by the BMC, Mumbai has a population of 3.9 lakh in this age group. The state has so far vaccinated 45% (17,46,069) of its 12-15 population.

Mumbai’s vaccination rate for teenagers in the age group of 15 to 18 years has also been low, despite the drive being active since January 3. Only 55% teenagers have taken the first dose and 41% have taken the second dose, according to BMC.

While earlier BMC had attributed the low turnout among 12-15 age groups to the exam season, officials told HT on Monday that with relaxation in Covid restrictions and removal of mask mandate, many parents are sceptical about vaccinating their children.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the civic body, said that while the response is still not as per expectations, it is steadily going up.

“We are writing to public representatives- MLAs, MPs etc to help us reach out to more people and encourage parents to get their children vaccinated. We have asked our field health workers to get in touch with the family physicians too to encourage and counsel parents to get their child jabbed,” he said.

Kakani also added that they are including Ganpati mandals and dahi handi utsav mandals to organise vaccine camps in their area for children.

While the government vaccination centres are still seeing a low turnout, BMC appointed NGO Project Mumbai to hold camps at schools. While earlier they did 100-200 vaccinations per day, the number currently stands at 500-1,000 a day.

“In the last one week alone, across various wards, our teams are overloaded with demand, getting calls for vaccination requests which wasn’t the case 10 days ago,” said Shishir Joshi, CEO and founder of NGO Project Mumbai.

(With inputs from Eeshanpriya)