MUMBAI: In a bid to make vaccines more accessible, the BMC plans to start night vaccination drives in select areas within the next few days.
There also is a plan to kick off a ‘My office, a safe space’ campaign to target workplaces to encourage 100% vaccination among their staff.
BMC officials believe such drives will help increase the second vaccination rate. At present, 105% of the city’s 92.3 lakh adult population have taken the first vaccine while only 79% are fully vaccinated. On Saturday, 83,657 people took the Covid vaccine across the city.
“During the pulse polio drive, our healthcare workers would walk with vaccines until late in the evening to vaccinate children who could not go to the centres on Pulse Polio Sunday. We are trying a similar method to push the Covid vaccination numbers,” said BMC executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare.
The idea is to reach out to those people, especially the floating population, who are unable to take a break from their work to get themselves vaccinated, she added.
At present, most Covid-19 vaccination centres operate between 9 am and 5 pm, but BMC officials are working out ways to stretch this drive up to 10 pm.
“A decision has been taken to start the night vaccination drive, but it will take a few days to fine tune the plan and start,” said Dr Gomare.
A couple of months ago when the daily vaccination numbers started dropping during the Navratri and Diwali festivals, the BMC started mobile vaccination centres that operate near residential areas.
Vaccination picked up in the past 10 days, ever since the news of the Omicron variant emerged from South Africa.
The BMC health department has also written to healthcare establishments to fully vaccinate their healthcare workers.
“We have also written to non-healthcare establishments to ensure that their staff are vaccinated,” said Dr Gomare.
This is being done as a part of the new campaign called ‘My Office, a safe space’ on the lines of the ‘My Family, My Responsibility’ campaign last year.
The BMC will also start an awareness drive in which mobile vans fitted with mikes will give vaccine-related information.
