Mumbai local train passenger activists are upset with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s varied Covid vaccination rules for regular commuters and essential category workers as the latter is allowed to travel with a single dose.
Commuters who have completed 14 days after the second dose of vaccine will get passes after verification of the Vaccination Final Certificate and photo ID for travelling in local trains in Mumbai. On the other hand, essential workers like train hawkers are allowed partially vaccinated.
Passenger activists are concerned that while all regular commuters will have to be full-vaccinated to board the train, they will still be exposed to the threat of infection as just about 50% of essential workers in Thane and 72% in Mumbai are fully vaccinated, therefore leaving room for spread of the disease, The Times of India reported.
According to the BMC, around 3.04 lakh healthcare and frontline workers in Mumbai have taken both doses of the vaccine. This makes 72% of the essential workers’ category.
On the contrary, 1.21 lakh workers from the same category are vaccinated with just one dose. The activists are concerned about this 29% of category.
In Thane, only 15,707 healthcare workers, or 49% of the targeted 32,017, have taken both doses. The corresponding number of frontline workers, including cops and municipal staff, among others, is 13,378, or 55% of the targeted 24,135.
Dr Santosh Kadam, president of the Thane chapter of the Indian Medical Association, told the TOI, “Having single dose-vaccinated healthcare travellers, who are in direct contact with Covid patients, could pose a risk to others considering the rush and close contact on trains. There are cases where some fully vaccinated people have been re-infected. So, caution has to be exercised.”
Activists have called the BMC’s move “unjust”. A suburban railway activist from Kalwa, Siddhesh Desai, was quoted in the report as saying, “We plan to approach the authorities in this regard. It is unfair on those who have taken a single dose and still have to spend a fortune to travel to work.”.
Dr Avinash Supe, former KEM dean and head of the Covid death audit committee, said, “Healthcare and frontline workers have been exposed to the virus to a greater degree and for a longer time. Many of them have got the infection, in which case even a single dose will act as a booster,” he said.
The BMC’s additional commissioner Suresh Kakani, defended the rule saying that the livelihoods of the essential workers will be hit if they are not allowed to take the Mumbai local trains.
Meanwhile, civic officials pointed out discrepancies in the Co-Win app as “many had taken second doses but since they registered with a different number, Co-Win didn’t record their full vaccination status.”
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