MUMBAI: The state is ontrack to achieve its quickest one crore vaccinations against Covid-19 this month.
A total of 86.82lakh doses have already been given in the first 12 days of themonth. At its current pace, Maharashtra will most likely be able to administerone crore doses by September 15, if not before.
With an increase in supply of dosesfrom the Centre, the state has clocked an average of 7lakh vaccinations inSeptember till now. “We are likely to cross the 1crore milestone in the first15 days of the month,” a state official said, adding it would be the fastestcrore achieved till now. The state plans to vaccinate over 2crore this month. Since the national vaccination againstCovid-19 rolled out in January, the state has managed to administer over 1croredoses each in July (1.21crore) and August (1.44crore).
The surge in supplies has also given riseto hopes that Maharashtra may after all be able to vaccinate its entire adult populationwith at least one dose in the next few months. The state has an estimated adultpopulation of 9.58crore of which 4.9crore have got at least one dose leaving another4.6crore to receive their first jabs yet.
A cursory glance at the rate of vaccinationshows that it may be possible to cover the remaining population, although stateofficials are guarded about reaching that milestone.
Dr Pradeep Vyas, additional chief secretary(health) said that a considerable number of doses would go to those due fortheir second shots. “The daily doses include both first and second doses, alldoses do not go towards the first dose. Further, the demand for a second dose willincrease with passage of time,” he said. State taskforce members have said that the authorities must now work towards reducing the disparity between districts.
Mumbai, which has also seen an uptickin vaccinations in September with an average of 1 lakh doses administered every day,stands a higher chance of covering all with at least one shot. The city hasadministered at least one dose to more than 82% of the estimated adultpopulation of 93.48lakh. Statistically, about 17lakh people are yet to gettheir first shots. Given that the city, including the private sector, has managedto vaccinate over 20lakh people each in the past two months, the single dose goallooks achievable.
“Yes, with the current range ofsupply, we may be able to vaccinate all adults with at least one dose in thenext two months. However, Mumbai’s coverage numbers also include 20% of MMRresidents, who may have got vaccinated here. So, we will have to vaccinate 20%more than Mumbai’s estimated population to reach everyone,” said Suresh Kakani,additional municipal commissioner.
