1st phase of vaccination drive will take 2 months

MUMBAI: The state Health Department will take two months or more to complete the first phase of the mass COVID-19 immunisation drive, which was earlier planned to be completed in 20 days by inoculating 50,000 healthcare workers on a daily basis. Following the instruction of the central government, the vaccination drive will now be conducted four days a week and the number of beneficiaries have reduced to 28,500 per day. Officials have attributed this delay to the technical glitch in the Co-WIN-20 application and the limitations in conducting the vaccination drive only four days a week with less than 30,000 healthcare workers (HCWs).

Dr DN Patil, state immunisation officer, said there is no issue if the first phase is extended, as there are other immunisation programmes across Maharashtra along with COVID-19, which need an equal amount of attention. The COVID-19 vaccination drive is important, but the Health Department cannot utilise all its manpower behind one vaccination drive. It will lead to problems in the other immunisation programmes. “Along with COVID-19, we also have vaccination drives for BCG, measles, polio and pentavalent, amongst others, which cannot be neglected,” he said. -