Maharashtra inoculates 41,470 healthcare workers in a day; centres increased to 528
MUMBAI: Maharashtra inoculated 41,470 healthcare workers (HCWS) — highest in a day so far — on Wednesday. It has also increased the number of centres to 528 from 477 centres, where the vaccination drive was held on Monday. With this, the number of HCW’S inoculated till date has increased to 178,371 since January 16, said Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, state health department.
The state government has planned to finish the first dose of all 784,000 health workers by mid-february and start the second dose, which has to be given after a gap of 28 days. It had planned to give Covid-19 shots five days a week (except on Tuesday and Sunday), but this week it will be held for four days, owing to preparations for a pulse polio immunisation programme.
On Wednesday, the state recorded a turnout of 77%, which shows an improvement in response from HCWS. The turnout has started increasing after HCWS, who are not on the list for that particular day’s session, were allowed to take their vaccination shot, the officials said. On January 25, the turnout recorded was 74%.
The state has also continued giving shots of Covaxin to
MUMBAI: For the second consecutive day on Wednesday, Dharavi-asia’s largest slum cluster reported zero cases in 24 hours. According to BMC officials, the change in strategy helped curbing the spread of Covid-19 in Dharavi that reported its first case of Covid-19 on April 1, 2020. On Tuesday too Dharavi had reported zero cases. As of
HCW’S at six centres and vaccinated 219 people on Wednesday.
In the two districts of Mumbai, 22,631 HCWS have been vaccinated so far, the health department said. Mumbai reported a 68% turnout on Wednesday with 5,197 HCWS vaccinated at 11 centres and 77 vaccination teams were in action.
According to data released by the health department, Gadchiroli, Dhule, Jalna, Buldhana and Wardha districts reported over 100% turnout. Gadchiroli reported the highest turnout at 126% turnout as 885 HCWS were vaccinated.
Dr Archana Patil, director, directorate of health services said that they have planned to hold the drive five days a week, except Tuesday and Sunday, and at 511 centres at least across
Wednesday, Dharavi had 3,911 cases of which 14 are active cases and 3,585 have been discharged.
A BMC official said, “We are trying to test every possible person. We have changed the strategy few days back by testing different people randomly, which has helped us curb the spread.” the state. However, this Saturday it won’t be happening because of pulse polio immunisation drive. “This week we won’t be holding the drive on Saturday, as we have to make preparations for the pulse polio immunisation drive to be held across the state on January 31,” she said.
“Covid vaccination of a person will be completed only after receiving two shots at a gap of 28 days. Our target is to complete the first round of shots of all the health workers by midfebruary and start with the second round of shots of the vaccine from February 13 for all those who have got the first shot 28 days ago,” Dr Patil said.
However, it would be difficult to achieve the target considering the pulse polio immunisation programme. “On January 30, we won’t be holding the vaccination drive, so that we can prepare for the pulse polio drive. Also from February 1, we would be holding Intensified Pulse Polio Immunisation (IPPI) programme, in which, house to house pulse polio drive would be conducted for five days. The healthcare workers would be visiting every household and ensure polio drops be given to all those children in the age group of 0-5 years who have not reached immunisation camps. It is going to be conducted for three days in rural areas and two in urban areas,” said another official, requesting anonymity.
Last week, the state received a second stock of 839,000 lakh doses of Covishield vaccines from the Centre. It needs over 1,700,000 doses to cover 784,000 healthcare workers. With over 1,800,000 doses, the state has more than enough stock to complete two doses of healthcare providers, the officials said.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 2,171 fresh infections, pushing the count to 2,015,524. Toll reached 50,894 after 32 casualties were reported. Of them, 17 occurred in the last 48 hours and four in the last week, the health officials said. Mumbai has clocked 435 cases on Wednesday, taking the case count to 307,175.
ZERO COVID CASES IN DHARAVI FOR 2ND DAY