Pune: Pune district witnessed a drastic fall in the number of beneficiaries turning up at the vaccination sites on the second day of Covid-19 vaccination on Tuesday.
While the first day, Saturday (January 16), recorded 58% of the target beneficiaries being vaccinated, the second day (January 19) saw only 48% of the beneficiaries turn up for vaccination. Currently the phase one of the nationwide Covid vaccination is underway exclusively for healthcare workers. The vaccination sites in the district were also brought down from 31 hospitals to 28 hospitals.
With a huge number of adverse effects being reported following vaccination and technical glitches in sending messages to beneficiaries, the second day of vaccination saw only 48% or 1,404 out of the 2,900 beneficiaries being vaccinated on Tuesday.
On the first day on Saturday, 1,802 beneficiaries of 3,100 targeted were vaccinated which took the percentage to 58%. The vaccination was shut down for two days, Sunday and Monday, due to the technical problems in the central government’s application “Co-WIN” which was exclusively developed to register and keep a tab on beneficiaries.
Archana Patil, state director of health services, had said on Saturday evening, “The vaccination drive would begin next week because we need to check the reported technical glitches. We will prepare a report and present it to the Centre. The central health ministry insists on using the Co-WIN app.”
On Tuesday, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) shut down three of the four private hospitals for vaccination as the “Co-WIN” site did not function. Additional municipal commissioner Rubal Agrawal said, “The three private hospitals were not used for day two of vaccination because there are some technical problems at these centres.”
{{/usCountry}}On Tuesday, Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) shut down three of the four private hospitals for vaccination as the “Co-WIN” site did not function. Additional municipal commissioner Rubal Agrawal said, “The three private hospitals were not used for day two of vaccination because there are some technical problems at these centres.”
{{/usCountry}}The three hospitals which were removed from the list were Deenanath Mangeshkar, Noble hospital and Bharti hospital. Six vaccination sites were used on Tuesday with two sites being created at the PMC’s Kamala Nehru hospital. The rural administration (15) and PCMC (8) did not change the number of vaccination sites operated on day two. Ruby Hall Clinic was the only private hospital which carried Covid vaccination in the city on Tuesday.
In terms of adverse effects following immunisation (AEFI), on the first day 303 AEFI incidents were reported, including two hospitalisation, as they were “serious” AEFI as per the central ministry protocol. The second day saw only four such incidents.
Dr Bhagwan Pawar, district health officer, said, “Only four such incidents have been reported till now and they are minor in terms of symptoms. Pune city and PCMC both have not reported any AEFI incident as of Tuesday late evening but rural has reported four such incidents. We have to wait for at least 24 hours before we get to know the real numbers of immediate reactions.”
Of those who were not vaccinated on Tuesday, 1,302 did not report to the site and 120 refused to take the vaccine, according to the district health officer.
Day two vaccination numbers
Session/sites/beneficiaries/targeted beneficiaries/vaccinated %
PMC/6/600/213/36%
PCMC/8/800/278/35%
Pune rural/15/1,500/913/61%
Total/ 29/2,900/1,404/48%