Ramdas Athawale demands COVID-19 vaccination for beggars & homeless persons in Mumbai

As India battles the second wave of COVID-19, Union Minister Ramdas Athawale demanded novel coronavirus vaccination for beggars and homeless people. On May 16, the RPI(A) president informed the media that he had put forth a specific proposal to the Mumbai COVID-19 Task Force. He said, "In the entire country, there are thousands of beggars and homeless people". According to Athawale, such an inoculation drive should commence in Mumbai at the outset. A total of 21,57,653 persons have been inoculated in Mumbai till now, 7,31,799 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too.

COVID-19 situation in Mumbai

In a heartening development, Mumbai has consistently shown a dip in COVID-19 cases resulting in Maharashtra's gradual caseload reduction. For instance, it reported 1544 new novel coronavirus cases on Sunday, May 16 propelling the city's COVID-19 tally to 6,88,696. At present, there are 35,705 active COVID-19 cases in Maharashtra's capital out of which 67 per cent are asymptomatic ones. The number of recovered soared to 6,36,753 after 2438 patients were discharged in the day. Meanwhile, 60 COVID-19 deaths were reported on Sunday, taking Mumbai's fatality toll to 14,008. The city's case positivity rate and fatality rate as of Tuesday stands at 11.65 per cent and 2.07 per cent.

So far, 58,98,605 samples have been tested for COVID-19 in Mumbai which amounts to 4,21,329 tests per million population. The number of COVID-19 cases in the city grew at a rate of 0.29 per cent from May 9- May 15. The number of available oxygen beds, ventilator beds, and ICU beds in Mumbai stands at 6523, 90, and 334 respectively. 

While there are 86 active containment zones currently, 339 buildings have been sealed. 19,887 high-risk contacts have been traced in the last 24 hours. At present, 909 high-risk contacts are admitted to Corona Care Centres 1. The patient doubling rate in the city is 231 days. The recovery rate of the Mumbai district remains constant at 92 per cent. Due to the high-intensity cyclone issued by IMD, the COVID-19 vaccination has been cancelled at all centres in Mumbai on Monday. Already, the inoculation for the 18-44 age group has been suspended in the state.