As many as 664 students who are planning to go abroad for higher studies have been vaccinated on priority in the past two days in the city. The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), which began this drive on Tuesday, has decided to extend it to Thursday.
“We have received as many as 2,019 emails from students requesting vaccination,” said a PMC health official, adding that another 500 are expected to be vaccinated on Thursday.
The doses are being administered at Kamala Nehru Hospital. The PMC had invited emails from students apart from documents to expedite the vaccination process in this group.
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“The staff was really polite and I did not have to wait at all,” tweeted Shruti Jahagirdar, a student who got her first dose on Wednesday. “The centre was clean and it was fantastic management by PMC,” she said on Twitter.
On Wednesday, the Pune Municipal Corporation was able to administer Covid-19 vaccine doses across 15 centres due to limited supply of Covishield doses.
Special vaccination drive organised for students going abroad for education at Kamalanehru Hospital on Wednesday, Pune. (Express Photo by Ashish Kale)
“We administered the second dose of Covaxin today,” said Dr Suryakant Deokar, city immunisation officer. “We are anticipating a supply of Covishield doses by this evening or tomorrow…However, we have received 150 vials of Covaxin till now and they are being administered mainly as the second dose,” Deokar added.
Usually 60 per cent of the doses are reserved for online booking while 40 per cent are offline ones. “We had vaccinated several beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group in the first week of May for a few days till the drive was suspended at government centres,” he said.
“Since doses were limited, only 15 centres of the municipal corporation were functional today for vaccination. The number of centres depends on the availability of the vaccine. Presently, 10.40 lakh doses have been administered till date in the city,” he added.
According to Dr Sachin Edke, Pune district vaccination officer, as of Wednesday, at least 58 government centres and 168 private centres are operational in the city.
Dr Sanjay Deshmukh, assistant director (medical), Pune circle, which includes Pune, Satara and Solapur, said they have received an approximate 26,000 doses of which 14,000 are Covaxin ones.
