In the wake of the second wave and increasing case load in the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike is working towards doubling the vaccination rate to check the spread of COVID-19. At present, on an average, round 35,000 citizens are vaccinated in primary health centres (PHCs) and private medical facilities across the city every day. The BBMP has prepared a micro plan at the PHC level.
BBMP chief commissioner Gaurav Gupta said that two lakh vaccines had already been provided to the civic body. An additional one lakh will be provided shortly. This will help improve the vaccination rate, especially covering those aged above 45 years.
P. Rajendra Cholan, BBMP’s Special Commissioner (Health), said that the civic body was not able to ramp up vaccination earlier due to shortage of vaccines. “We need to have a buffer of at least 2 lakh vaccines at any given point of time. There was also demand from various private medical facilities who wanted to extend the time to facilitate vaccination of the working population,” he said.
The additional vaccines now provided to BBMP will be disbursed accordingly to various PHCs and private medical establishments.
“We had identified 8.5 lakh citizens aged above 60 years in the city. Of these, we have covered 5.5 lakh senior citizens. Similarly, there are nearly 20 lakh persons aged above 45 years,” said Mr. Cholan. He added that spot registration among this age group has seen an increase over the past few days in the various private hospitals. Hence, the hospitals had also sought an increase in vaccines and buffer stock in their facilities. This may mean that from 200-250 per day, the target could be enhanced to 500 a day per vaccination site (private hospitals).
ASHA workers
Meanwhile, Mr. Gupta said ASHA workers would be directed to identify beneficiaries from slums and other lower socio-economic areas and encourage them to get vaccinated.
Mr. Cholan said the ASHA workers had been given a target of identifying at least five persons every day and bringing them to the nearest PHC or health sub-centre. “We are thinking of providing buses or tempos to bring the beneficiaries to the vaccination sites,” he said.
