MUMBAI: After two days of steady climb, the turnout for vaccination in the city and across the state plunged on Thursday. In Mumbai, the drop was of a significant 15% compared with Wednesday’s turnout figures, while for the state overall, the dip was of 3%.
The state on Thursday vaccinated 40,187 health workers -- 73% out of the intended 54,771 and down from 77% on Wednesday. Maharashtra, however, breached the 2 lakh mark, with a total of 2,19,696 being vaccinated by the eighth day of the drive. It became the fourth state in the country to vaccinate over 2 lakh. Officials said nearly 28% of the 8 lakh health workers have been vaccinated so far, and the target was to finish giving the first dose by February 15.
The decline in Mumbai was sharper than in the rest of the state. Of the intended 7,700, merely 4,430 (58%) came to take the vaccine. In the previous two days, 5,197 and 5,005 were vaccinated, pushing the coverage to 72% and 77% respectively. Dr Mangala Gomare, executive health officer, said it was not clear why numbers dropped so significantly. SevenHills Hospital, where 15 booths have been added, saw a footfall of 331, much less than the response expected. Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli saw the highest footfall (728), followed by KEM (578). In all, the city has completed vaccinating 27,829 of the registered 1.23 lakh health workers.
“We are sending messages but also calling beneficiaries to ensure better turnout,” Gomare said, adding that the majority of the vaccination numbers were made up by those who are walking in instead of those scheduled for the day through Co-WIN appointments.
The BMC plans to increase the number of vaccination booths from 77 to 90 on Friday. “We will add one more hospital (jumbo facility at NESCO grounds) to our list of 11,” said AMC Suresh Kakani. “To begin with, NESCO will have two booths, but we may extend it to four if the response is good enough,” he added.
As the BMC has decided not to dismantle any field hospital till March 31, it may set up booths at field hospitals in Dahisar and Mulund in the coming days. “We have the potential and space to increase booths to way over 100 if needed at short notice. The turnout will decide our future of action,” Gomare said.
For a better response, BMC has also planned to empower ward-level teams by handing them the complete list of registered beneficiaries and letting them register those missing from Co-WIN database. Dr Vidya Thakur, medical superintendent of Rajawadi in Ghatkopar, said the participation is mainly from the private sector now. KEM dean Dr Hemant Deshmukh said KEM staffers were getting vaccinated in a staggered manner so that the hospital work remains unaffected.
Dhule district continued to clock the highest coverage in the state at 111%, followed by Beed, Palghar, Nanded, Sindhudurg and Thane with over 90% turnout. However, centres giving Covaxin didn’t see any remarkable shift. While 94 were vaccinated in Amravati, Nagpur saw 38, Pune saw 15, Mumbai 17, Solapur 15 and Aurangabad saw 53 beneficiaries take the shot. Each centre is supposed to vaccinate 100 in a day.