COVID-19 vaccination in Mumbai: Doctors get jabs to assure others

Several doctors were administered COVID19 vaccine in Mumbai on Saturday with many of them saying that they wanted to dispel fear about the inoculation by volunteering to take the first dosesWhile Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation BMC officials said that the inoculation drive proceeded smoothly on day one some beneficiaries complained that they received intimation only hours before the drive beganAt the civicrun Sion hospital and medical college Dean Mohan Joshi was the first beneficiary followed by 42 others including heads of department and associate professorsThe vaccine is safe Joshi told PTI adding that all healthcare workers must take it so that they are protected from the infection as they go about their workIt is a historic day in my life he saidHis colleague Dr Nilkanth Awad from the respiratory medicine department said vaccination will help end the pandemic but social distancing and wearing masks will have to continue alongside for optimum resultsDr Awad had conducted trials of Bharat Biotech manufactured Covaxin at the Sion hospitalAt a centre in Bandra Kurla Complex BKC where Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray launched the statewide drive members of the states task force on coronavirus Dr Gautam Bhansali Dr Hemant Joshi Dr Harish Shetty and Dr Rahul Pandit were administered vaccine shotsIt is safe to take the vaccine Dr Bhansali saidDietitian Madhura Pandit was the first to get the vaccine at the BKC centreFormer state health minister Deepak Sawant was the first beneficiary at the Cooper Hospital centre which was also part of the nationwide live launch of the drive by Prime Minister Narendra ModiMumbai municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal told reporters that 330 lakh people from the city will be vaccinated in the first and second phases Some 130 lakh frontline health workers are registered in the first phaseVaccination drives were underway in 49 countries and there was no need for fear he saidI am not entitled to take the vaccine as I am not a healthcare worker otherwise I would have been the first to take it Chahal saidVandana Aawle 55 a civic health department employee said her relatives advised her to take the vaccine in the second phase so that she would be forewarned about any side effects but I took part in the first phase as I know people are initially hesitant fearing adverse reactionsPrivate hospital employee Laxmi Shirsat said she did feel nervous when she got a call from civic officials that she was to get the dose on Saturday But I told myself that we will have to take it sometime or other so why not today she saidGanesh Parkar who works as a peon at Dadars Sushrusha Hospital said he was happy that he was the first employee from the hospital to get the jabI did not face any problem The process was smooth though it took longer than expected he told reporters while coming out of the BKC vaccination centreBut some healthcare workers complained that they were intimated by the BMC that they were to get vaccinated on Saturday only a few hours earlierWe didnt receive any SMS one of them saidAdditional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said the SMSes were not received by some beneficiaries due to technical glitches in CoWIN applicationThe head of the BKC vaccination centre Dr Rajesh Dere said the drive proceeded smoothly on the first daySome people were shifted to observation rooms after they complained of issues but the cause turned out to be anxiety and claustrophobia officials saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever