The State Health Department has revealed that 1.64 crore people missed their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine until March 2. Of these, 1.28 crore have missed the second dose of Covishield, while 36.03 lakh gave Covaxin a miss. So far 71.2 per cent of eligible people across the state have taken both doses of the vaccine.
Healthcare officials have attributed this to a drop in Covid cases, besides negligence and several misconceptions related to vaccines. State immunisation officials said they have been working overtime to create awareness related to vaccination and reaching houses in every district to motivate people for the second dose, but yet the results are not good. Meanwhile, they have also made a list of beneficiaries whose second dose is still pending and it has been circulated in each district.
State surveillance officer Dr Pradip Awate said during the third wave a large number of unvaccinated and partially-vaccinated people contracted Covid-19 and they have now postponed their inoculation. They are expecting that in the next one month, the daily rate will increase once the infected individuals become eligible to get the jab.
As per the data, 10.92 lakh beneficiaries in Pune are overdue for the second dose of Covishield, followed by 8.14 lakh in Nashik, 8.02 lakh in Aurangabad, 7.97 lakh in Nashik, 7.56 lakh in Thane and 6.95 lakh in Mumbai. Similarly, for Covaxin, over 2.91 lakh of beneficiaries in Pune have not taken the second dose, followed by 2.05 lakh in Buldhana, 1.72 lakh in Mumbai, 1.61 lakh in Nanded and 1.54 lakh in Kolhapur are due for second dose of covid-19 vaccine.
Dr Archana Patil, joint director, Directorate of Health and Services (DHS), said healthcare officials have been encouraging the beneficiaries. Calls are being made to them and special camps are being organised in the vicinity to increase coverage.
