Covid-19: In Mumbai, demand for vaccines rising sharply

Earlier this year as Covid19 cases dipped to merely a handful the vaccination centres noticed a drop in beneficiaries as well Since the scare over a surge in China the BMC and private hospitals have together been vaccinating about 700 people daily up from about 200 before December 10This has prompted the state government to ask the Centre for fresh stockSources said the vaccination centres have sought stocks of antiCovid vaccines as the number of beneficiaries turning up for their shot has suddenly jumped People have started inquiring about the availability of vaccines they addedRequesting anonymity a senior health official said ldquoLately the daily average of people coming to get vaccinated against Covid19 has come close to a thousand In Mumbai less than 200 people are taking the vaccine at BMC centres Private hospitals vaccinated 571 people on ThursdayrdquoA health official vaccinates a beneficiary against COVID19 File PicSayyed Sameer AbediAccording to the BMC all the 9236500 beneficiaries in the 18plus age group have taken the first two doses of the vaccine But only 15 per cent 1449415 of the total eligible population has taken their booster dose According to the experts it is important for the public to take the booster for better protection against the Coronavirus especially for vulnerable peopleAlso Read Mumbai International Airport to restart Covid19 preventive measures BMC issues advisoryThe state is almost out of Covishield and Corbevax vaccines according to health officials who said that only a few hundred doses of Covaxin left No new orders were placed to replenish the stock as there was no demand In the state only 9 per cent of the eligible population has taken the booster doseBooster for vulnerableThe health experts in Mumbai also advised the vulnerable citizens including the elderly and people with highrisk diseases to get their booster shot At the same time they said that there was no need to panic as ldquowe have already dealt with Omicron and its subvariantsrdquoDr Hemlata Arora senior consultant Internal Medicine said ldquoAt present there is no spike in the number of Covid19 cases but those above the age of 45 and with comorbidities can opt for a booster dose for added protection We have successfully overcome the Omicron wave and there is no clinical precedent to suggest a more virulent wave of a pandemic will return to IndiardquoDr Trupti Gilada infectious diseases specialist at Masina Hospital said there is a need to first find out if the existing vaccines will work on the new Omicron variants ldquoThere are two things to note First we need to see whether the existing immunity is from vaccination or previous infection Second most vaccines were made before the Omicron wave and now there are new variants So as of now there is no need to push for vaccination We have to see whether it will work on new variantsldquoHowever people who are at risk must get vaccinatedrdquo Dr Gilada added Sanjay Khandare principal secretary health said ldquoWe have already asked the central government for vaccines If there is a huge demand we will take steps accordinglyrdquo On Friday the state reported 23 new cases including seven from Mumbai There were no fatalities Currently the state has 134 active cases out of which 37 are from MumbaiMumbai has enough beds oxygen to deal with a surge ward war rooms are back online BMCEven though there has not been any spike in daily cases the city administration has started preparations Mumbai has 2800 beds reserved for Covid19 patients The war rooms have been activated for attending to emergency calls A senior civic official from the health department said ldquoLooking at the current situation the BMC has ample beds as of nowThere are two hospitals majorly treating Covid19 patientsmdashSevenHills and Kasturba with 1700 and 35 beds respectively Apart from that government hospitals like Cama has 100 beds St George has 70 beds Tata has 16 beds Jagjivan Ram hospital has 12 beds There are also 26 private hospitals with a total of 871 beds dedicated to Covid19 patients We will increase the number of beds if the situation demandsrdquoldquoAdmissions to all these hospitals will be managed by ward war rooms which are functional 24 x 7 at all the 24 BMC wards Citizens can contact them in case of any difficulty Also enough oxygen is available in the form of Liquid Medical Oxygen Dura Cylinders and PSA tanks to manage a rise in Covid19 casesrdquo As per the guidelines the airport authorities are restarting measures like testing 2 per cent of international passengers arriving at the Mumbai airport All positive samples will be sent to NIV Pune for genome sequencing571No of people vaxxed at pvt centres on December 22193No of people who had come for vaccination against Covid on December 97No of new cases Mumbai reported on Friday