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Pune district admin to propose Covid vaccination for all above 18 years
After the weekly meeting with deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday, divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao said that the district administration would follow up with the central and state governments to increase vaccination
Amid a rise in Covid cases in the district, civic officials and health experts have highlighted the need to undertake vaccination for all residents of Pune district above 18 years of age. The Pune district administration will send an official proposal to the Centre and state governments regarding the same.
After the weekly meeting with deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar on Friday, divisional commissioner Saurabh Rao said that the district administration would follow up with the central and state governments to increase vaccination.
Pune district reported 3,264 new Covid-19 cases, on Friday, according to the state health department. The figure took the progressive count of the district to over 4.33 lakh of which 4.02 lakh have recovered and 8,170 have been declared as dead. Currently, 21,788 are active cases undergoing treatment in hospitals or in home isolation.
Rao said, “Pune has maximum active cases in the country and is reporting highest new cases in the state and so for the same, we will follow up with the central and state government to increase the vaccination in the district.”
“Currently, Pune’s positivity rate is 17 per cent and we are at 11th position in the state. A policy decision needs to be taken to allow Pune to open up a universal vaccination drive for all above 18 years irrespective of their comorbidities,” he said.
Rao added that issues like prioritising the areas which reported a higher number of cases during the first and second wave and logistics were also discussed during the meeting. He said, “We have to take note of the administrative and medical preparedness. If we get the additional vaccines we also discussed the time frame in which it would be possible to vaccinate beneficiaries.”
“The health experts have suggested that we could vaccinate the entire population above 18 even with no comorbidities which could prevent the severe second wave. Logistics and priority issues are also being discussed and we will follow up on the same,” he said.
Pawar said, “The Niti Aayog members and central team members have also proposed to expand vaccination drive among those above 18 years even without comorbidities. The administration will send an official proposal. Meanwhile, I have spoken to a few MPs from the district, Girish Bapat, Supriya Sule and others to raise this issue in the Parliament .”
Although the efficacy of both the vaccines is being debated especially given mutated variants, experts believe both vaccines have established that the severity of symptom in an infected and vaccinated person is far lesser compared to an infected non-vaccinated person.
Dr Subhash Salunkhe, Covid advisor to the state government who was also part of the meeting, said, “Both the vaccines, Covaxin and Covishied have proven to reduce hospitality and severity of symptoms even if they are infected after vaccination. It is beyond doubt that both the approved vaccines reduce the probability of transmission and of hospitalisation which would be a great success.”
According to a study presented by Tata consultancy services and Prayas it has been estimated that the second Covid wave could see 47-52 per cent of the peak of the first wave, September 20, 2020. Without any restrictions in place, the number of critical patients could go up to 47 per cent of what the district saw during the first wave and with some restrictions in place, this could come down to 29 per cent.
Rao also added that if the Centre permits then the vaccination centres could be increased and the number of beneficiaries could be taken up to one lakh daily compared to about 24,000 beneficiaries being vaccinated currently.
“To increase testing we will provide additional aid to Sassoon hospital which will increase their testing capacity from 700-1,000 per day. National AIDS Control and Research Institute (NARI) and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Pune (ISSER) where the testing is stopped would be brought on board now,” he added.
