Senior deans and doctors to boost vaccination drive

Amid increasing the awareness related to covid-19 vaccine and more number of healthcare workers and general public should come forward for the mass immunisation drive, several doctors were administered COVID-19 vaccine in Mumbai on Saturday, with many of them saying that they wanted to dispel fear about the inoculation by volunteering to take the first doses.

The deans, deputy deans, head of the respective department of the civic and state-run hospital and senior doctors from the private hospitals took the vaccine first and worked as a catalyst to boost the confidence of HCWs to take the vaccine.

The state covid-19 task-force members Dr Shashank Joshi, Dr Rahul Pandit and Dr Gautam Bhansali had visited the BKC jumbo vaccination centres to take their dose of Covishield on Saturday. “I am very happy and it’s historic day in my life to take the covid vaccine and I have taken a vaccine to inspire all the people of India especially my fellow and brother sister HCWs to protect themselves,” he said.

At the civic-run Sion hospital and medical college, Dean Mohan Joshi was the first beneficiary, followed by 42 others including heads of department and associate professors. “This vaccine is safe and all healthcare workers must take it so that they are protected from the infection as they go about their work," he said.

His colleague Dr Nilkanth Awad, from the respiratory medicine department, said vaccination will help end the pandemic, but social distancing and wearing masks will have to continue alongside for optimum results. Moreover Dr Awad had also conducted and was part of the trials of Bharat Biotech- manufactured Covaxin at the Sion hospital.

In the first phase, health workers who were first vaccinated at the center, Dr Milind Nadkar, Academic dean, KEM hospital, Dr Ramesh Bharmal, Nai hospital, Dr Prafulla Bansode, Bhabha hospital, Dr Madhav Karanth, VN Desai, Dr Vidya Thakur, medical superintendent, Rajawadi hospital, Dr Rutuja Baraskar, Babasaheb Ambedakar hospital and Dietitian Madhura Pandit at the BKC centre.