Hindustan Times ST (Mumbai) - Live
In Thane, getting 2nd dose becomes tough
Long queues for walk-in jabs at TMC centres, shortage of vaccine doses add to people’s woes
THANE: For the 52-year-old Babulal Raut, getting inoculated for the second time was a task as he had to wait in the queue from 6am. He finally got his turn at around 11.30am. Just like Raut, there are hundreds who line up outside the vaccination centres in Thane city on a daily basis from early in the morning.
In July, vaccination was held on a walk-in basis across all the 35 Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) centres apart from two centres. TMC blamed this on the shortage of vaccines. However, this only added to the woes of the residents as most of them were forced to leave their work and stand in queues for long.
In most cases, people expressed that they were sent back around mid-morning after waiting for hours as the vaccine doses were exhausted. Thus, many were left looking ahead to another day of sweating or getting drenched in rain in long queues. Getting the second dose is becoming increasingly difficult for many due to this entire walk-in system as they fear getting infected in the crowd.
Raut said, “I had been waiting for two weeks. There was no sign of any online vaccination centre near my residence. Moreover, the drive was suspended for a few days due to a shortage of vaccine. Keeping all of these issues in mind and the fact that I had to take the second dose as per schedule, I went for the walk-in facility at Manpada. I was told that people queue up from 4am, so I managed to go by 6am to the vaccination centre. As soon as I went, I stood in a queue and was numbered. It was only around 10.30am that the officers arrived and gave us tokens. I got jabbed by 11.30am. It was very exhausting and I felt it would have been better to pay and get vaccinated,” said Raut.
Many others go through this ordeal on a regular basis. The Thane civic body conducts drives in around 40 vaccination centres. Among these, only two centres – the drive-in facility at Raymond’s and Thane Global Centre – provides online registration. All other centres have only walk-in facilities.
Dr Khushboo Tawri, medical officer, TMC, said: “There is a continuous shortage of vaccine. We manage to distribute all that we have equally across wards and centres. However, there are many who are due to get their second shot and online registration might make it difficult for them to get slots on online portals. Moreover, we hardly have around 100 doses in each centre due to the unavailability of vaccines. Hence, we have resorted to only a walk-in facility.”
Pramod Biswas, a 43-year-old resident of Kalwa, said, “I work as a daily wage worker. For the first shot, I had to wait from 4am for eight hours. For the second dose, I waited for three hours.”
Dr Vipin Sharma, TMC chief, said, “A day prior to the vaccination ,drive we prepare a schedule highlighting which centres will be operational and how many doses will be provided to these centres. This is put up on the social media and widely circulated. Despite this, people queue up outside the centres. Our on-duty officers inform them that only a certain number will be allowed. We are taking ample measures to avoid crowding.”