For the first time more than 60,000 beneficiaries were vaccinated on Saturday. According to the vaccine data, 64,186 beneficiaries were vaccinated in the last 24 hours. Of the total vaccinated, 63,390 were given Covishield, while 796 were administered Covaxin.
Meanwhile BMC has joined hands with non-government organisations (NGOs) to facilitate the process. Sweta Mehra, a vaccinator at Dahisar jumbo centre, said a number people refuse to take the vaccine even after reaching the vaccination centre and leave. “They ask us questions about the vaccine’s efficiency rate, side effects and sustainability of antibodies in the body. Many Covid recovered patients are also avoiding getting the jab presuming they are safe from reinfection,” she said.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner (health), BMC, said, there are nearly 1.5 lakh people in Mumbai who are old and bedridden or handicapped and can’t move out of their house for vaccination. “We had written to the Centre to allow us permission to visit them to vaccinate them, but the central officials told us that there is no such policy. It would have really helped those who are confined to their homes,” he said.
Dr Vivek Talaulikar, CEO at Global Hospital said with the increase in the number of cases, vaccinating general citizens above the age of 45 irrespective of comorbidities comes as a welcome move on the government's part. The general phase started on March 1 was about vaccinating the vulnerable citizens. The second phase has all citizens above the age of 45 being vaccinated.
“Today being the first day, we saw a very good response from the citizens aged between 45-59. The average over the last month has been more of senior citizens taking the Vaccination, but today we saw a reverse trend with more people aged between 45-59. There were more than 150 people aged between 45-59, who registered and got their first dose of vaccine today,”he said.
