Over 3,500 health workers get COVID-19 jab in Mumbai

At least 3,539 of the day'starget of 3,852 health workers were administered COVID-19vaccines at 10 vaccination centres in Mumbai on Friday, acivic official said.

According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation(BMC), the numbers have improved considerably since the drivestarted on January 16, as the civic body has now permittedhealth workers registered for immunisation to walk in anytimeto take the shot.

As per the official data, only 48-52 per cent healthworkers had come forward to take the vaccine in the firstthree sessions of the drive.

Nearly 92 per cent of 3,852 healthcare workers weregiven shots on the fourth session of the immunisation drive,the official said.

''The response to the drive has improved since thewalk-in facility was started for healthcare workers,'' theBMC's executive health officer Mangla Gomare said, adding thattechnical issues of Co-WIN application have been resolved,making the procedure smoother for them.

Co-WIN is the IT platform developed by the Uniongovernment to implement and manage the inoculation process.

According to the official data, 685 healthcare workerstook the shot at KEM Hospital, the highest in the city,followed by 572 at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital and 517 atRajawadi Hospital.

All of them were administered Covishield vaccine,manufactured by Pune-based Serum Institute of India, barring25 health workers, who took the jab at the state-run JJHospital, where Covaxin developed by Hyderabad-based BharatBiotech is being administered.

Earlier on Wednesday, of the targeted 3,300 healthworkers called in for inoculation at 10 centres, only 52 percent (1,728) healthcare workers turned up.

On Tuesday, 1,597 out of 3,300 health workers receivedvaccines, while 1,923 of the 4,000 workers took the shot inthe first session on Saturday.

In light of poor response to the drive due to thetechnical glitches in Co-WIN, the civic body decided to allowthe registered healthcare workers to ''walk in'' take thevaccine, if they are not listed for the day.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)