Covid-19 cases on rise, vaccinations see a dip
MUMBAI: Despite the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state and city, the response to the vaccination drive has been dwindling in Maharashtra.
After reporting a daily caseload of less than 3,000 for more than 20 days, the state has been breaching the mark for the past three days. On Friday, the state saw 3,670 cases, taking the tally to 2,056,575 and toll to 51,451, with 36 new deaths.
Mumbai, too, reported more than 500 cases for the third day in a row, after staying below the mark for more than two weeks. With 599 new cases, the city’s tally touched 312,902 and toll 11,409 with 4 new deaths.
The vaccination drive saw 50.25% turnout, as 40,000 citizens got inoculated at 796 vaccination centres that have the target of 100 beneficiaries each. With 23,012 vaccinations, frontline workers outnumbered health care workers (16,988) in daily vaccination on Friday. “We have been vaccinating around 40,000 beneficiaries daily. We expect the response from healthcare workers to improve. The turnout is high in districts where our department has strictly implemented it. We have been taking the vaccination drive very seriously. We will have to launch an awareness drive,” said state health minister Rajesh Tope.
As of February 9, the state has 1,054,822 healthcare and 691,222 frontline workers registered on COWIN app. On Friday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) vaccinated 6,361 beneficiaries, including 2,382 health care workers and 3,979 frontline workers.
Meanwhile, the state will start giving the second dose to the beneficiaries from Monday.