Nagpur: The Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) on Thursday added around 8,000 pharmacists under the healthcare worker (HCW) category for vaccination against Covid-19.
Additional municipal commissioner Ram Joshi said the pharmacists are also constantly exposed to the virus and identified as high risk group. “They would need to show an I-card issued by their association and Aadhaar number to take the jab,” he said.
Nagpur District Chemist and Druggist Association secretary Hetal Thakkar said its members are facing the threat since Day 1. “We thank the administration for considering our request. A lot of members have tested positive during the pandemic. We have also requested the collector to inoculate our members residing in other parts of the district,” he said.
The development comes on a day when the vaccination figures fell by nearly 40% as compared to last week in the city.
NMC medical officer Dr Sanjay Chilkar said the response was poor only at private hospitals while the government centres continued to vaccinate good number of age-appropriate groups, HCWs and frontline workers (FLWs). “But citizens seem to be preferring government centres over private ones where they are supposed to pay Rs 250 for the jab,” he said.
The final tally slipped to 7,538 in the city from 8,445 on Wednesday. The number of beneficiaries inoculated at some private centres were just in single digits while many were under 50.
Multiple reasons were cited for the sharp fall in number of beneficiaries at private vaccination centres. Some said their immunization staff tested positive and thus the work came to a halt. Some blamed the unseasonal rains which led to people staying indoors.
A doctor from Ramdaspeth said the lockdown and rising cases were the major reasons for steady decline in turn out of beneficiaries.
Dr Chilkar said the drive would get a boost from Friday as pre-registration of elderly citizens would be proactively starting at each zone level. “The commissioner has ordered to reach out to elderly and ensure early vaccination. Our teams would help them get registered at zone level. We have instructions to increase the daily vaccination as much as possible,” he said.
Regarding the pharmacists, Chilkar said the CoWin app is open now and they would be added under the HCW category.