BBMP, private hospitals jab 1.64 lakh people as part of 'Lasikaa Mela'

Ramping up the vaccination drive across the city, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike's (BBMP) 'Lasikaa Mela' (Vaccination Fair) on Friday witnessed an overwhelming response with as many as 1,20,124 (96 per cent of target) people being vaccinated. Further, along with the help of the private players, the BBMP collectively jabbed a whopping 1.64 lakh people on a single day. Even though the four zones were slackening during the day, three other zones have outperformed the target by vaccinating more people.

The zonal officials of the Bommanahalli zone succeeded in vaccinating nearly 3,000 more people than the actual target. The officials attributed their success to increased awareness and planning. “Our officials had communicated the availability of vaccines to the people in the last two days and encouraged them to get vaccinated,” said M Ramakrishna, Joint Commissioner, Bommanahalli Zone.

The West Zone, with 25,816 vaccinations, recorded the highest number of vaccination during this special vaccination drive. "The zone has a number of markets, bus stations and railway stations and hence has a higher absorption capacity. As part of the vaccination drive, we augmented more teams and set up mobile vaccination camps. Hence we were able to achieve more than expected,” said B Shivaswamy, Joint Commissioner of the West zone.

However, a few zonal officials in the four zones that failed to achieve the target opined that it was a far-fetching target. “We usually vaccinate close to 6,000 people every day. To achieve 12,000 is indeed a difficult task. However, we have put in efforts and have tried to reach at least 10,000,” a senior BBMP official from Yelahanka told DH.

Echoing the opinion was an official from the Dasarahalli zone which recorded the least coverage of 69%. “We have put together teams to vaccinate more people. However, we did fall short of staff and were able to vaccinate only around 10,000 people. Going ahead, we will improve our capacity,” the official from Dasarahalli told.

The civic body had set up 788 vaccination sites and out of which a total of 264 were permanent sites followed by 203 mobile sites. Nearly, 44,663 doses were administered in the private sector across the 321 private sites, pushing the vaccinations administered on Friday to a whopping 1,64,787 lakh people.