Thane Municipal Corporation’s special vaccination drive in Mumbra gets poor response

Thane Municipal Corporation’s vaccination drive set up in Mumbra has barely seen half the number of targeted people on two days; poor response due to festive season, say officials

Despite merely 28% population in Mumbra ward being vaccinated so far, the special vaccination drive set up in this suburb by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has received lukewarm response on Thursday and Friday.

A vaccination centre Thane wears a deserted look on Friday. Thane Municipal Corporation’s special vaccination drive in Mumbra gets poor response. (PRAFUL GANGURDE/HT PHOTO)

Only 3,000 people, as opposed to the 6,000 targeted, have got jabbed. Apart from Mumbra, the vaccination is also slow-paced in Uthalsar with 52% population vaccinated with at least the first dose while around 20%-30% got jabbed in Lokmanya Sawarkar Nagar.

TMC claimed that the reluctance among people to get the first dose of vaccination was the main hurdle.

TMC has, till now, given 16 lakh doses of vaccine whereas it has a target population of 18 lakh to be double vaccinated. Out of this, around 91% of the population in Kalwa ward, 80% of the population in Wagle Estate, 52% in Uthalsar and more than 100% in Majiwada-Manpada and Vartak Nagar wards are vaccinated with at least the first dose.

These are data provided by TMC of those who have availed the vaccination facility within their jurisdiction and includes both private and government vaccination figures.

“There are some who do not want to get vaccinated while there are some others who are not sure of the benefits of the vaccine. However, since the last one month, most are delaying the vaccination process by citing the current festive season. As vaccinations often have side effects, many are not keen on falling ill during the festivities. This is the reason we have adopted various modes to understand how many actually have been vaccinated within Thane city,” said a senior officer from TMC.

TMC claimed that those not vaccinated in its jurisdiction must be vaccinated elsewhere and thus the data cannot be relied. “As we have access to those availing the vaccination facility within the TMC jurisdiction only, we have a team that calls those who have only taken the first dose of the vaccine and are due to take the second. Almost 80% of the calls we have made so far have been fully vaccinated elsewhere – in a different city or through workplace vaccinations,” said Dr Prasad Patil, vaccination officer, TMC.

TMC has assigned ward-wise individuals for both surveys and to make calls to keep track of the number of vaccinations. “As we cannot keep track of the vaccinations occurring beyond our jurisdiction or visit the lakhs of population by door-to-door, it is getting difficult to reach 100% vaccination mark. However, through mass drives in wards that have had a lukewarm response and through our various campaigns, we are trying to make vaccination accessible and increase awareness by reaching out to religious leaders in these areas,” added Patil.

In all TMC vaccination centres, preference is given to those who are residents of Thane city.