After achieving 100 per cent vaccination of both doses for citizens above 18 years, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has started a three-week-long special vaccination drive to cover those who have completed the mandatory gap for the precaution dose. The civic body will emphasize the maximum number of eligible children to be vaccinated during the drive.
The special Covid 19 vaccination campaign that began on May 12 will conclude on May 31. “The efforts are being made to protect the maximum number of citizens against covid vaccination,” said Municipal Commissioner Abhijit Bangar. He added that the corporation is making efforts to increase the number of Covid vaccinations.
Navi Mumbai was the first city to achieve 100 per cent vaccination of the first dose above 18 years of age group citizens. This could happen because of proper planning of Covid vaccination from the very beginning.
Even the civic body completed 100 per cent of the second dose in record time. Similarly, the corporation is leading in the vaccination of children in the age group of 15 to 17 years and 12 to 14 years as compared to other big cities.
“At present, the severity of the Covid has come down and this is one of the reasons why citizens are not coming forward to get vaccinated even though it is the prescribed time to take the second dose or the third precaution dose. However, due to adequate vaccination, the effect of the third wave is not so much felt. Therefore, considering the importance of vaccination as well as the prevailing Covid condition in other countries of the world, it is necessary to take both precautionary doses,” said Bangar.
Under this campaign, the civic body has identified 750 places and is also planning to provide vaccination facilities in crowded places like Nakas, Markets, Railway Stations, Bus Depots, Malls, and Resident Associations. For this, NNMT buses of the corporation have been made available.
Teachers of Navi Mumbai Municipal School are playing an important role in this campaign. Groups have been formed consisting of seven teachers and three for each civic primary health centre. Through these groups, awareness and initiative will be taken to reach out to the citizens in the vicinity of the civic health centre and to vaccinate the children who have not received the second dose of vaccination or precautionary dose as well as children above 12 years of age.
So far, in the NMMC area, a total of 12,54,436 citizens above 18 years of age have taken their first dose of Covid, a total of 11,31,341 citizens have taken both doses and 57,332 citizens have taken precision doses.
