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Pune’s vaccination model a silver lining in fight against Covid
On Saturday, Pune district reported its highest vaccination numbers so far as 76,954 people got the jab. Admin is now prepping to vaccinate about 1 lakh daily
Pune’s vaccination model proves to be a success and the district has been vaccinating close to 70,000 beneficiaries, which is now the highest in the state. The administration is now prepping to vaccinate about one lakh beneficiaries daily starting from Monday.
In the past one week, Pune has reported highest per day vaccinations, followed by Mumbai, Kolhapur and then Nagpur.
On Saturday, Pune district reported its highest vaccination numbers so far as 76,954 people got the jab.
Since April 1 the central government has approved vaccination for all above 45 years which makes 28 lakh people in the district eligible for vaccination.
Saurabh Rao, divisional commissioner, Pune division, during the meeting on Saturday with the administration and hospitals, head and Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) said that one principal reason why Pune has registered a higher number of cases over the past few weeks is the higher number of infected people arriving from other countries in the city through other cities like Mumbai, New Delhi and Ahmedabad.
He said, “Due to the new criteria of the active patient caseload in the vaccine dispatches to the districts across the countries has enabled Pune district to secure a larger number of vaccines over the last few days. Within the division, quick replenishment of the vaccine supplies is being ensured and any bottlenecks if any are being brought to the notice of the administration.”
“We need to push the vaccination drive to 1,00,000 from April 5 and also daily for the coming days. As the administration, we have ensured hospitals all support in addressing the issues relating to stocks of vaccines and logistics. Pune is already the number one district in the country in terms of vaccination,” he said.
Rao has also agreed to allow the hospitals to vaccinate citizens from 9am to 9pm.
Dr Dhananjay Kelkar, medical director of Deenanath Mangeshkar Hospital, who also participated in the virtual meeting, said, “Aggressive vaccination drive in the coming days would be helpful to prevent a larger wave in the coming weeks. Data from Israel, UK and USA suggest that vaccinating larger sections of the population has helped in preventing deaths and instances of hospitalisation.”
“A weekly plan of vaccination can be drawn up instead of a daily appointment schedule to manage the crowds better. Many of the citizens turn up without appointments which puts pressure on the system,” he said.
Sudhir Mehta-President, Mahratta Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA) and lead coordinator for Pune platform for Covid response, said, “If we can vaccinate all the currently eligible beneficiaries then we as a district can request the Centre to further ease the vaccination criteria for other age groups. Pune could become the first district to vaccinate one lakh daily and also vaccinates the highest number of beneficiaries in the country.”
Rao, meanwhile, said that there is room to increase the available beds to treat Covid patients as we have not even reached 80 per cent of the bed availability of last year’s peak even though the daily infections have increased from 5,200 from last year’s peak to 9,200 currently.
“Of course it is a comforting factor that rate of hospitalisation and deaths is on the lower side in this wave. However, every available bed category needs to be utilised judiciously – for example, the ventilators need to be reallocated to a more critical patient and the treated patient may be shifted to oxygen bed/another required resource,” he said adding that many hospitals can convert their conference rooms /corridors into oxygen centres.
