Despite targeted efforts from the Greater Chennai Corporation, vaccination data for the city showed that close to 40,000 people may have missed their second dose of Covaxin within the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-advised window of a maximum of six weeks.
However, Corporation officials said the actual numbers were likely to be far lower as there could be duplication and other such technical issues in the data available on the CoWIN portal.
According to data available on vaccine doses administered through government-run centres till August 2, a total of 4,69,225 people have received their first dose of Covaxin and 3,32,254 had received the second.
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As per the ICMR guidelines, those who received their first dose till June 20 must have received their second dose by August 2 as it marked the end of the six-week window.
However, the numbers showed that while a total of 3,71,861 people had received their first dose as on June 20, only 3,32,254 had received the second dose as on August 2. The difference of 39,607 probably missed their second dose in the six-week window.
It must be noted that a previous analysis done in the second week of June showed that more than 60,000 city residents had missed their second dose of Covaxin. Since then, the Corporation conducted special drives on many days to cover those who missed the second dose. From June 20 to August 2, the Corporation administered more second doses of Covaxin than first. A total of 97,364 first doses and 1.21 lakh second doses were administered in the period.
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While the special drives and tracking of those who missed their second doses certainly helped in bringing down the numbers from above 60,000, the latest data showed that many people may have still missed it.
A senior official from the Corporation, however, said such high numbers may not have actually missed their second dose. The official said that a vast majority of these numbers can be attributed to issues with data collection. Another official involved in the vaccination effort pointed out that there could be instances where a person providing a different mobile number or identification details while taking the second dose may be mistakenly recorded as taking the first dose. He said there could also be instances where people who took the first dose in the city may have taken their second dose elsewhere.
The senior official said the situation on availability of Covaxin, the primary reason earlier for many missing their second dose, had improved. “Both the off-take and the demand for the second dose of Covaxin have reduced,” he said, adding that the Corporation, however, continued to track the people who are due for their second dose to get them fully vaccinated.