Mumbai local ward offices are struggling to walk the last mile even as the city nears 100% single vaccine dose feat. Mumbai, which has a target of vaccinating 92.3 lakh beneficiaries, had covered 89.3 lakh beneficiaries with the first dose, which is 97% of the target, and had fully vaccinated 56% of the eligible population by October end. However as the city now nears the 100% target, it is faced with a hurdle in the form of vaccine hesitancy.
Talking to TOI, ward officers said while they have been able to track the unvaccinated or partially vaccinated in large housing societies, monitoring slums has been a challenge.
A ward officer told the media “In the case of a standalone building or a housing colony with a few buildings, this is still possible. But if it’s a large society, there are again challenges as getting the vaccination status of those who live on rent is not possible, even for the office bearers as communication with such persons is limited.”
As per reports, to make the process of tracking easier, some wards have issued letters to housing societies, requesting the vaccination status of the eligible population in their buildings, including the house help, gardeners, and laundrymen, among others.
A month back, the BMC had conducted a vaccination camp within the G P Nagar slum locality in Dahisar which has a population of around 50,000. Former Shiv Sena corporator Abhishek Ghosalkar told TOI that while the plan was to vaccinate 12,000, they could manage to give the jabs only around 4,000. He said the reason behind this could also be that vaccine availability improved only from August in the civic centres and people began coming to take their first dose. In that case, there is still time for them to get the second dose, considering the minimum 84-day gap between doses, said Ghosalkar.
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“We are hence taking help of local community influencers or asking community health workers to bring such persons to the vaccine centres and requesting them to take a shot,” Patil told TOI.
Goregaon corporator Srikala Pillai, whose ward largely comprises slums was also of a similar opinion. He said that vaccine hesitancy is most likely observed among those who are semi-literate. “In slum pockets, most youngsters have taken the shots as workplaces or local train travel mandate two doses. But some in the adult population are still left. Apart from going into these pockets and initiating vaccine drives, I am offering free cloth bags and face masks, for which many come forward. And then we check for their vaccine status and if not vaccinated, they are administered a dose,” she said.
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