MUMBAI: Maharashtra improved its vaccination numbers by 15% as 41,470 people took the Covid-19 shot on Wednesday, the seventh day of the first phase of the mass drive meant only for healthcare workers. On Monday, the number was 35,816.
The state could, however, only meet 77% of the intended daily target of 53,900 healthcare workers. “We added many sites, variation was bound to be there,” said National Health Mission chief N Ramaswami. But he said, “We hope to complete a minimum of 40,000 vaccinations per day to complete our first phase in time.”
Mumbai, which leads all the districts in terms of vaccinated workers, increased the vaccinator teams to 77 on Wednesday and covered 5,197 healthcare workers. “We managed to cover 68% of the target of 7,700 healthcare workers,” said a BMC official. Of these, 18 took the Covaxin shot at JJ Hospital while the majority took Covishield.
The BMC introduced one more centre, Seven Hills Hospital in Marol, to take the list of hospital centres to 11. While Shatabdi Hospital in Kandivli managed 829 vaccinations on Wednesday, Rajawadi in Ghatkopar had 783. KEM in Parel was third, with 595 vaccinations. Eight minor adverse events following immunisation (AEFI) were noted, but no one needed hospitalisation.
While Ramaswami said only 10% of the 41,470 vaccinated in the state had sought “walkin” appointments, the figure in Mumbai was 60%. BMC officials said only 1,800 of the 5,197 had got messages from the Co-WIN app. “There are some minor issues with the software, but it’s working well most of the time,” said a BMC official.
BMC executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare said a meeting will be held to discuss ways to boost numbers so all healthcare staff can get the first of the two shots by February 14. “Most people get a message about the vaccination date at the 11th hour. We will try to improve this,” she said. While BMC isn’t too keen to allow the private sector to vaccinate healthcare workers in the first phase, it has written to them seeking details about infrastructure. “We are awaiting replies from various hospitals,” she said.
Dr Archana Patil, who heads the Directorate of Health Services, said Co-WIN’s performance has been improving. “We have been able be carry out at least 90% of the vaccination steps using Co-WIN, including intimating beneficiaries. For the rest, we are able to upload data by the end of the day,” she said, adding that sessions could be created for 528 sites on Wednesday. Several doctors, however, told TOI the link for the provisional certificate generated by the app following the first dose was not received by everyone. Patil said she would have to check with districts if people have been getting the link.
Meanwhile, percentage-wise, the turnout was highest at Gadchiroli at 126% and lowest in Aurangabad at 46%. Mumbai leads the vaccination pack with 22,361 vaccinations. Thane district is next with with 17,842, and Pune has 14,728.
Covaxin’s performance across five of the six centres continued to be lacklustre in the state. Overall, 2,064 have been given Covaxin out of the intended 4,500-odd in the seven days of the vaccination drive. Only District Hospital in Amravati has managed to continue the momentum. On Wednesday too, it vaccinated 100 out of the 100 registered for the day, compared to 18 in JJ, 17 in Pune district hospital and seven in Government Medical College, Solapur.
(Inputs by Sumitra DebRoy)