Now, get vax in your locality; NMC seeks to up numbers

Nagpur: With the number of beneficiaries turning up for vaccination going down and also to ensure inoculation for all eligible, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is launching the ‘vaccination in your locality’ drive from Monday. It will be held at 336 different places up to Saturday.
Municipal commissioner Radhakrishnan B told TOI that all ten zones are identifying and analysing areas where the response for the vaccine was poor. “They will suggest measures to enlist more numbers and identify areas to conduct the drive. Till then, we will move the Covid-19 Vaccination Centres (CVC) to all localities. They will operate for two days in one area,” he said.
Mayor Dayashankar Tiwari has urged people above 45 years to take benefit of the drive.
Currently, the NMC is operating 98 CVCs. No vaccination will take place in many of these centres between Monday and Saturday. According to NMC chief medical officer Dr Sanjay Chilkar, “Teams engaged at these CVCs will be present at the 336 sites. A decision on extending the drive will be taken after analysing the experience of the first week.”
In the week gone by, number of beneficiaries has gone down to a great extent in the district. On May 15, the number was 24,379 and 7,046, 9,539, 7,439, 5,756, 5,231, 5,449 and 4,209 on the following days.
As per state public health department data, the estimated population of the district is 52,72,665 and around 30% (15,81,800) are likely to be above 45 years. Around 50% people from the 45-plus age group have taken the first dose as on May 22. Around 8 lakh eligible people remain for the vaccination.
The NMC and zilla parishad (ZP) are operating 221 centres. Around 300 can be vaccinated at each centre in a day. Thus, the total capacity of the centres in the district is 66,300. The number of beneficiaries has dropped to below 6,000 per day.
Guardian minister Nitin Raut and divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar had set a target of 20,000 per day. Hence, now the NMC is trying to get the number up with new ideas. The two centres of drive-in vaccination which started last week are continuing.
Activist Narayan Ahuja termed ‘vaccination in your locality’ as a nice move. “All eligible people should take the first dose. Those due for the second should go too. Its been observed that people crowd a centre when it is launched and then the it thins out,” he said.
The number of beneficiaries have also gone down due to increase in interval of two doses from 6-8 weeks to 12-16 weeks. Also, 3.2 lakh people from the district were tested positive in the second wave from March to till date. They will have to wait for three months as per latest guidelines of the government. A majority of these affected people are from 45-plus age group.
IN A NUTSHELL
* NMC is administering vaccine at 98 centres currently
* Beneficiaries reducing daily despite 50% of total population above 45 years are yet to take the jab
*Inoculation will be held for two days in a locality where very less number of people vaccinated
*NMC planned vaccination in this manner at 336 locations in six days from Monday to Saturday
*In these six days, team engaged at existing 98 centres will go to these 336 locations
*Similarly, vaccination will be planned in other areas after next week