Turnout for vaccination records 6% drop in Mumbai

MUMBAI: Covid-19 vaccinations in the city dived on Wednesday, a day after the state saw a large drop in numbers. Across the state, vaccination numbers dropped by 32% on Tuesday compared to the previous day, while in the city the turnout dipped by 6% on Wednesday.
The state saw 1,89,001 vaccinations on Tuesday after constantly registering a turnout of over two lakh every day for 11 days.On Monday, the state had touched a record high of 2,76,354 vaccinations. The state had set a target of three lakh vaccinations per day to cover the pool of nearly two crore people from the prioritised groups in the next few months. The state has finished administering 47.8 lakh doses of vaccine since January.
Mumbai’s turnout has been on a constant decline for five days. On Wednesday, for the first time since the drive for senior citizens started on March 1, the elderly footfall dropped below 20,000. Of the 34,633 people who took the vaccine on Wednesday, 18,194 were senior citizens, 9,255 were frontliners, 4,071 were people over 45 years of age with co-morbidities and 3,113 were healthcare workers.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said the vaccination drive would be intensified. He said Mumbai was nearing the administration of a million doses. “We are working on increasing hours and starting more centres,” he said, adding that the BMC was awaiting the approval of 19 more private hospitals in the drive.
Dy CM Ajit Pawar said he would raise the demand for vaccination camps in housing societies in Pune with the Union health ministry. “The Union government manages the entire operation of setting up vaccination centres. I will request the Centre to look into the demand for vaccination camps on housing society premises,” he said.
(Inputs by Nisha Nambiar in Pune)