Till August 19, 4,33,121 Nagpurians have taken the third dose of preventive vaccine against COVID-19
Nagpur: Amidst skepticism among citizens owing to the low rate of Covid19 infections, Nagpurians still showed their trait to push the city at top in terms of number of those jabbed with booster dose in the State of Maharashtra. For the two doses, citizens volunteered to take the preventive vaccination. However, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) had to make a lot of efforts to convince the people to take booster dose. Till Friday, August 19, about 4,33,121 citizens in the city had taken the booster dose.
The population of Nagpur district is 50,95,405. Around 30,86,285 citizens of all age groups are eligible for booster dose. Out of these eligible persons, 4,33,121 citizens have taken booster dose as per the data with NMC and the ratio is 14.3 percent. Interestingly, 3,11,689 citizens have taken booster dose out of 17,72,049 eligible persons considering the population base of Nagpur city which gives the ratio of 17.58 percent.
Nagpur district has surpassed even the State capital Mumbai in the number of booster doses taken by citizens. Mumbai’s booster dose ratio is 13.57 percent while Palghar (12.4 percent) is at the third position. Municipal Commissioner Radhakrishnan B has applauded the Nagpurians for their spontaneous response to the booster dose campaign. He said vaccination is essential for every eligible person to avoid the possible threat of COVID-19.
A booster dose is to be given to persons who have completed six months or 26 weeks after the second dose of Covishield or Covaxin or Corbevax under the Covid-19 preventive vaccination. The Central Government had announced a booster dose after the COVID-19 cases started increasing. Empirical data collated first two doses showed considerable increase in immunity level that helped stave off the third wave. Hence a special campaign was now announced to encourage citizens to take booster dose.
Till August 15, special thrust was laid on providing booster doses as part of Amrut Mahotsav and citizens were encouraged to visit nearest civic polyclinic to get the jab. During the time, ‘Har Ghar Dastak’ campaign was also undertaken by NMC for immunization of those above the age of 18 years with a booster dose against Covid19. Apart from this, the number of vaccination centres was also increased in the city so that citizens can walk-in and get the jab. Citizens responded to NMC’s initiative and in 15 days of the launch of the 75-day long special vaccination campaign on the occasion of Amrit Mahotsav of Independence about one lakh Nagpurians took the booster dose in 15 days.
