With 89% given first dose for Covid, NMMC hopes to reach 100% vaccination in Navi Mumbai by October

With 89% of the people from Navi Mumbai vaccinated with their first dose against Covid, NMMC has claimed that it is expecting to reach 100% vaccination for the first dose by next month.

With 89% of the people from Navi Mumbai vaccinated with their first dose, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has claimed that it is expecting to reach 100% for the first dose by next month.

A beneficiary gets his vaccination against Covid at NMMC centre, ESIS Hospital, in Vashi. (BACHCHAN KUMAR/HT PHOTO)

Once the 100% mark for the first dose is reached, NMMC will discuss the probabilities of vaccinating people who do not have Aadhaar card with Navi Mumbai address. “Till now, we have been concentrating on vaccinating those with Navi Mumbai address. For those who do not have, we have tried to inculcate them with the help of various means by getting a letter from their employers in Navi Mumbai. Since we are approaching 100% vaccination with the first dose, we can now think of vaccinating everyone after reaching the 100%. This will be discussed first and then implemented,” NMMC commissioner, Abhijit Bangar, said.

Even as 89% of the total eligible population of 10.60 lakh is vaccinated with the first dose, around 10% to 15% of the same are being considered to be people from outside Navi Mumbai who would have come here for vaccination at private hospitals.

“In the beginning of the vaccination drive, when the booking of the slots was online, we had no control over it and many of them from outside Navi Mumbai also came here for vaccination. After it became offline, we have been vaccinating only the residents. The private hospitals, though, did vaccinate people from outside as well. But it applies vice versa too as many Navi Mumbai residents have got vaccinated from Mumbai or from their workplace in Mumbai when the vaccination drive had started,” Bangar added.

As of now, 10.09 lakh people have got their first vaccination done while 4,78,216 of them (47%) have got their second dose. “Only 47% are fully protected in Navi Mumbai and the others need to make sure that they get their second doses soon and make themselves secure. We’d now be concentrating more on the second dose as many are due to get them,” a medical officer from NMMC said.

Around 6.39 lakh people between 18 years and 44 years have got vaccinated with the first dose, and 2.02 lakh of them have got the second dose as well. In the age group of 45-59 years age group, 2.14 lakh people have got their first dose and 1.52 lakh of them got the second as well. In the 60-plus years category, 90,545 people got the first and 78,424 got both.