Maharashtra Environment and Tourism Minister Aaditya Thackeray on Monday met with Mumbai Suburban Collector Nidhi Choudhary, Additional Municipal Commissioner (AMC) Suresh Kakani and DMCs of Mumbai to review and seek inputs for the city’s strategy to tackle the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, increase COVID-19 vaccination and control vector-borne diseases.
Thackeray said they are planning to increase the administration of vaccine shots in university students and working populations. "Last week an 'only for women' vaccination drive resulted in 1.27 lakh women in Mumbai being vaccinated in a day. We’re looking at planning for 2nd dose due shots, university students and increasing coverage of 2nd shot in working populations," he tweeted.
The Minister further said that he has requested the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) "to prepare a logo that would have a QR code to verify housing societies, buildings, offices that are fully vaccinated. This can be displayed at the entry gates".
Meanwhile, 86 per cent of the people in the city have developed antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, according to the recent findings of the fifth sero-survey conducted by the BMC.
Among those who are partially or fully vaccinated, the number of those with antibodies is 90 per cent, while 80 per cent of the unvaccinated too, have antibodies. However, there is not a variety of antibodies that have developed in people overall and herd immunity has not been attained so far, civic officials and doctors have cautioned.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said the prevalence of antibodies in people from slum and non-slum areas was much higher as compared to previous serosurveys. The fifth sero-survey report indicates that people living in both slum and non-slum areas have developed the same percentage of antibodies. Even if antibodies are found, precautions like the use of masks, hand hygiene and maintaining safe distance must be followed, he said.
“Though 86.64 per cent of the city's adult population has developed antibodies against Covid-19, we cannot lower our guard. Citizens need to adhere to Covid-appropriate behaviour, considering the third wave can impact Mumbai anytime,” he warned.
Besides, as per a BMC report on Sunday, there are 4629 active cases in the city. With 5 deaths due to the infection on Sunday, the total fatalities in the city reached 16,053.
