City far behind rural Maha in its Covid vaccination turnout

MUMBAI: Rural districts in state are recording a better turnout for inoculation than Mumbai which has despite having better accessibility, shows data shared by the state health ministry. Officials said most vaccination centres in Mumbai have completed vaccinating their staff members in the first phase, the response of healthcare workers (HCWs) from other hospitals is poor.

In the last four immunisation sessions, the overall turnout of beneficiaries in Mumbai has gradually dipped. On February 1, Mumbai recorded 93.4% turnout, which plunged to 80% the next day. On February 3, turnout dropped further to 76% and on February 4, it went down to 54%.

Data shows that more number of shortlisted beneficiaries are getting inoculated in rural districts than Mumbai. On Thursday, for instance, rural districts like Yavatmal (72%), Jalna (71%), Wardha (71%), Sindhudurg (58%), among others recorded a higher turnout than Mumbai. As per data of the state health department, Mumbai city (south Mumbai) ranked 32 among the 36 districts with the lowest turnout (40%) on Thursday.

Officials have cited several reasons behind it. When the mass immunisation programme started on January 16, the primary focus was to vaccinate HCWs associated with the immunisation centres. “We have inoculated 90% of our staffers including senior doctors, resident doctors, nurses, ward boys, among others who came forward for vaccination. So, flow of beneficiaries has decreased recently,” said a senior doctor from BYL Nair Hospital.

Currently, most vaccination centres have started shortlisting HCWs from other hospitals. But many aren’t showing up for two reasons- centres are far from their hospitals and delay in intimation. To address the issue, private hospitals have approached the civic body seeking permission to start an immunisation programme in their hospital premises. “It will be more accessible for staffers to get vaccinated at the hospitals which will ultimately increase the overall turnout of the city,” said Dr Gautam Bhansali, consultant physician at Bombay Hospital.

“Till Tuesday night, (CoWIN) application was functioning properly but later, it started having technical errors, due to which turnout of frontline workers was less on Thursday. However, we have directed all staff to alert the beneficiaries manually,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner.