Nearly half of Bengaluru done with first Covid-19 dose

As of Saturday evening, 48.81 per cent of the city’s population had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

This figure is catching up with the international average of 53.5 per cent coverage achieved by 20 wealthy or low-population countries which have vaccinated the greatest number of their people with at least one dose.

In the lead is the Mediterranean island nation of Malta, where 78 per cent of the 5.03 lakh population has received at least one dose. At the tail end of the “top 20” are Germany and Cyprus. In Cyprus, with its population of 8.76 lakh, 50.2 per cent have been vaccinated. Germany has vaccinated about 50.21 per cent of its 8.3 crore population. Comparing a city population, 51 per cent of Berlin’s 36.4 lakh population has been vaccinated, according to German Federal Ministry of Health.

Bengaluru’s achievement stems from the fact that 42,60,136 people have received at least one dose, out of an officially revised, projected target population of 91,00,852 people aged 18 and above.

Less impressive is the number of people fully vaccinated with both doses: 8.42 per cent. The municipal Chief Commissioner, Gaurav Gupta, said this is due to the gap between doses.

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“According to our information, 81 per cent of the people who were slated to receive the second dose in BBMP limits have done so,” he said. About 7.8 lakh people in the city have received the second dose.

While Health Minister K Sudhakar told DH the objective is to “fully vaccinate every eligible citizen by the end of this year”, the number of daily vaccinations required to achieve this target is not being met in several districts, including Bengaluru Urban.

One expert stipulated that over 90,000 doses need to be administered daily in Bengaluru Urban alone to meet the year-end target. However, between June 12 and 18, only an average of 60,327 vaccinations were administered in BBMP limits, with another 12,331 vaccinations in other Bengaluru Urban areas. Saturday was an exception with 1.1 lakh doses being administered in BBMP limits, plus 17,173 doses in other Bengaluru Urban areas.

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Nevertheless, Gaurav Gupta acknowledged that the number of vaccinations have been low. “One reason could be the Centre’s decision to make vaccines available free of cost to people from June 21. We suspect that many people are holding off on getting vaccinated until Monday,” he said.

“Another reason could be that the private sector has not been getting an adequate number of doses,” he added.

This was confirmed by the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes’ Association (Phana). “Apart from big-chain hospitals, many small and medium sized hospitals are struggling to get doses. In my centre alone, Pristine Hospital & Research Centre, we received just 2,500 doses out of 5,000 ordered. Most hospitals are making do with the leftovers of five lakh doses supplied to the private sector in May,” said Dr H M Prasanna, president, Phana.