Hardly 5.16% of those who have taken the second dose have come forward for the precautionary dose within Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC) jurisdiction.
With poor response for the booster, TMC will send 30 teams across the city for a month-long door-to-door campaign wherein vaccine will be administered to those who have not been inoculated.
Till now, around 31 lakh have been vaccinated overall in Thane city, 16.59 lakh have taken the first dose and 14 lakh have taken both the doses. From among them, only 72,344 have come forward for the precautionary dose. There are around 2.58 lakh beneficiaries who have not taken the second vaccine dose yet.
The response in private vaccination centres is fewer when compared with government centres. Such a poor response has prompted the Thane civic body to start a campaign.
“There are many who are not feeling the need to get jabbed as the cases had reduced and Covid rules are also not mandatory anymore. People have become complacent and are avoiding vaccination as well. However, vaccination should not be taken lightly as it helps develop immunity and reduce the impact of the Covid virus when infected. With the rise in cases now, it is essential that people get jabbed and take the precautionary dose as well,” said Dr Santosh Kadam, president, Indian Medical Association, Thane.
In order to increase vaccination, the second phase of TMC’s door-to-door vaccination campaign has begun. This is a month-long campaign that includes teams from all 30 health centres within the civic body jurisdiction. A similar initiative called Har Ghar Dastak was taken last year wherein after visiting 5.70 lakh households, health care officials inoculated 21,500 beneficiaries.
“The door-to-door vaccination campaign aims to jab all those who are not inoculated. This can be either first, second or booster doses. Awareness regarding vaccination will also be created,” said Sandeep Malvi, additional commissioner, TMC.