Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - HT Navi Mumbai Live
In Thane dist, vaccination drive gains momentum
Gets more than 2L doses in last 2 weeks; civic bodies continue to face shortage as demand increases
THANE: The vaccination drive that had hit a snag for more than a month now has now gained momentum after Thane district received more than two lakh doses in the last two weeks.
This has led to vaccinating around 3.6 lakh beneficiaries in the last 10 days across the district – seeing a 4% spike in the vaccination drive with the supply of doses becoming consistent.
Since the last two weeks, the district has received more than one lakh doses each week. This has helped inoculate more than 15,000 beneficiaries across the district on a daily basis. On two different days last week, the district inoculated more than 80,000 beneficiaries each.
It was after more than a month that the vaccination drive across the district picked up. Earlier, the doses used to arrive only once or twice a week. Around 50,000 doses were not enough for the entire week. This led to many vaccination drives being called off in various places.
Out of the overall population of 99 lakh, 31.9 lakh have been vaccinated till now. From among these, 22 lakh, or 23%, have received at least the first dose and 9 lakh or 9% have been fully vaccinated till now.
“On August 26 and August 29, we received 1.53 lakh and 78,000 doses, respectively. This has helped conduct vaccination drives across the district without any hurdle. In the current situation, wherein those fully vacciThane nated are permitted to travel by trains or visit public places, there is an increased demand for vaccination. Moreover, those within the 18-45 years age group, who were inoculated with the first dose in May and June when the vaccination drives were opened for them, are mostly due to take their second jab. This will also lead to an increased demand in vaccinations across the district,” said Dr Manish Renge, district health officer, Thane.
Thane, Kalyan-Dombivli bodies struggle for doses While the district has been receiving sufficient doses of vaccines, civic bodies in Thane and Kalyan-Dombivli are still struggling to meet the demand of vaccinations from the huge population that the cities have.
Almost 50% of the travelling population in local trains are from the suburbs that include railway stations like Thane, Diva, Dombivli and Kalyan.
Thus, a rise in demand for vaccination in these areas is expected.
Meanwhile, Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) has crossed the 10-lakh mark – inoculating 4.7 lakh women and 5.3 lakh men till now. From among these, 18.7% have been fully vaccinated while 47.9% have received at least the first dose. Until August 20, only 15% were fully vaccinated
city has around 45 government vaccination centres and 20 private vaccination centres. These include five mobile vaccination centres and door-to-door vaccination facilities as well. Special sessions are also being organised for those travelling abroad for work or studies. Till now, the city has vaccinated 395 pregnant women, 43 lactating mothers, 17 bedridden and 411 from the third gender.
“Our mobile vaccination facility has been posted in different parts of the city and we ensure that the destitute are also vaccinated through this facility. Moreover, we organised a special facility for teachers, health care workers and frontline workers at Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Hospital in Kalwa and Parking Plaza on Thursday. We do have sufficient infrastructure to vaccinate 50,000 beneficiaries daily but we are currently relying on the vaccine supply from the state government and plan our vaccination drive accordingly,” said Dr Vipin Sharma, Thane Municipal Corporation commissioner.
Overall, the city has fully vaccinated 11.3% of the eligible population within the 18 to 60 years age group. Around 23% in this age group are yet to get their second dose of vaccination. This is considered to be the moving population of the city who rely on local trains.
“It is essential to vaccinate as many as possible. Only this can help curb the onset of the third wave. Once the moving population is fully vaccinated, the impact of the third wave can easily be controlled,” said Dr Tejas Ghude, pulmonologist, Thane. Ghude added that there was still a need for being extra careful and people need to either use double masks or wear N95 masks as precaution and keep sanitising.