BMC says drop because public centres no longer facing shortage and most people in high-rises are vaccinated
A beneficiary takes her vaccine dose at Nair Hospital on Monday. Pic/Ashish Raje
With the availability of vaccines at public centres no longer a problem and a large chunk of the population living in high-rises already vaccinated, doses administered by private centres saw a major drop in October. While the share of jabs given by these centres was 54 per cent in August and 40 per cent in September, this month till date they have given only 22 per cent of the total doses.
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As part of the city’s mass vaccination drive, more than 97 per cent of adults have received at least one dose and 55 per cent, both doses. In May when the government refused to vaccinate people between 18 and 45 years of age free of cost and public centres were facing a shortage of jabs, people turned to private centres.
“It was also because people wanted to avoid crowds,” said Snehal Joshi, a Borivli resident. When the government capped the vaccine cost at private centres, more and more people opted for it. In June, private centres administered about 62 per cent of the total 21.6 lakh vaccines given in the city.
When the vaccine scam came to the fore, for a brief period people avoided private centres. This reflected in the July vaccination figures. Even the BMC appealed to private centres to vaccinate people under CSR to utilise the vaccines before they expired. However, in August once again the share of vaccines administered by private centres increased to more than 50 per cent. In September, when the vaccination drive picked up pace and more vaccines were available at public centres, the share of private centres came down to 40 per cent.
In October, 4.85 lakh citizens received the first dose whereas 7.19 lakh received the second dose. Out of it, only 53,000 went to private centres for their first dose and 2.12 lakh took their second dose at paid facilities. “The availability of vaccines at public centres is one of the reasons. Another one is that most of the people residing in high-rises have already taken their vaccines. Now the civic body is trying to reach out to those who couldn’t take their jabs,” said a BMC official.
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