Daily Covid vaccination dips to below 1,000 in Maharashtra

PUNE: Amid the ongoing unavailability of Covid-19 vaccines, most government sites across the state are reporting zero immunisation. Moreover, with a negligible response being seen from beneficiaries, private sites are also unsure of offering vaccinations now.
Daily jab figures have dropped below 1,000 doses per day in the past three weeks. In fact, on Sunday, Pune administered just 28 doses, mostly in private sites, while centres in Nagpur, Amaravati, Beed, Parbhani, Nandurbar, Dhule, and Nashik and many others reported zero vaccination.

According to data on CoWIN, the highest daily vaccination figure in the state in the past four weeks was recorded on February 8 last month, when over 8,000 doses were administered on a single day.
But from February 12 onwards, Maharashtra saw a steady decline in vaccination figures, which finally dropped below 1,000 doses, barring for a few days, where they inched above the four-digit mark.
State health services officials said that with the limited availability of Covishield and Covaxin doses, they are uncertain of the vaccination's future.
Sanjay Patil, chairman of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Hospital Board of India, Pune chapter, told TOI, "Now that Covid cases have gone down, there is absolutely no need to invest the time, manpower and logistics in the vaccination. The thought has receded among beneficiaries as well as hospitals. Since there is no fear and no cases, there is no inquiry for the doses as well."
He added, "The Centre should take a call about making the Covid vaccine available over the counter. In such scenarios, the expiry of the vaccines is taken care of by the supply chain of the manufacturer, distributor and seller. This is unlike the present situation, wherein private hospitals have had to bear the brunt of expired doses in lakhs of rupees."
Laxman Gophane, assistant medical officer of Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), confirmed that the response has gone down drastically across vaccination sites in the twin cities, too. "We are at present offering Covaxin amid the unavailability of Covishield. There are eight vaccination sites in total, each offering 50 doses per day of Covaxin, which mostly remain unutilised," he said.
State immunisation officer Dr Sachin Desai was unavailable for comment on the matter.