Pune civic body gears up to vaccinate all aged above 45 yrs despite many challenges

On Tuesday, Prakash Javdekar, minister of Information and Broadcasting, said that from April 1, all above 45 years of age, irrespective of their comorbidities, would be given the vaccine

Even as the central government has declared that all aged above 45, with or without comorbidities, would be able to get the Covid-19 vaccine, the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is trying to race against time and cross multiple hurdles to ensure the same.

Despite a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, the district administration as of Monday has been able to vaccinate only 3.9% of the district’s population, even as 4.03% of the population has been affected by the infection. (HT PHOTO)

On Tuesday, Prakash Javdekar, minister of Information and Broadcasting, said that from April 1, all above 45 years of age, irrespective of their comorbidities, would be given the vaccine.

An exhausted PMC staff, which has been fighting Covid-19 for more than a year now, and with increased vaccination and increased cases, is now under pressure.

Civic officials also said that some of the specialty hospitals that have been designated as Covid-19 vaccination centres are now refusing to undertake vaccinations.

Despite a surge in the number of Covid-19 cases, the district administration as of Monday has been able to vaccinate only 3.9% of the district’s population, even as 4.03% of the population has been affected by the infection.

The administration is now racing against time and with more people eligible for the vaccine, the civic body could face a shortage of manpower.

As of Monday, of the 1.17 crore mid-year population estimate for 2021, a total of 4.60 lakh people have received the first dose.

District collector Rajesh Deshmukh said, “On the preparations to vaccinate all above 45, we can ramp up daily inoculations. We had started from 16 centres and yesterday we have the most number of jabs in the entire state. So we are ready to ramp up vaccination numbers, provided that there is a smooth supply of vaccine shots.” Additional municipal Commissioner Rubal Agarwal said, “We can increase vaccination at five more government centres and we will now collect data on how many people we have in the city aged above 45 years.”

Agarwal added: “We cannot control the vaccine stock and we will distribute as per required. We will use the maximum possible hospitals at optimum capacity. We have the same manpower and infrastructure and we will use them to maximum. We are also requesting the government to give us a maximum stock and currently we are running 109 session sites. We are also going to start vaccinations 24x7 at five locations.”

Dr Vaishali Jadhav, assistant health officer who is in charge of vaccination sites said, “We have got proposals from 20 smaller hospitals which we will forward to the central government. However, we are getting requests from some specialty hospitals, who are refusing to vaccinate as they do not want to compromise their patients’ safety. These are the hospitals that are empanelled and were put up on the list by the central ministry.”