Amid scarcity, no Covid-19 vaccination drive today in Mumbai: BMC

A woman gets vaccinated at Nair hospital on Wednesday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Amid the shortage of vaccines, the civic body suspended the vaccination drive at civic and government-run centres for Thursday. With stocks expected to arrive anytime on Thursday, the drive would resume on Friday.

The development further jeopardised the vaccination of students slated to go abroad. While the BMC had planned an ambitious drive for them, even small centres in various corporator wards went dry on Wednesday. Opposition leaders in the BMC accused it of mismanagement and shoddy planning.

The drive was held only in 81 units across the city, which have the capacity to vaccinate hardly 8,000 people. According to civic data, 4,178 beneficiaries were inoculated at civic centres, around 1,332 were vaccinated at state-run centres and 711 students headed abroad were vaccinated. The BMC had reserved 900 doses for them across three centres.

Also Read: Covid-19: Mumbai's new cases stay below 1,000, deaths at 31

"The vaccination drive will not be conducted on Thursday at government and municipal centres due to insufficient supply of vaccines. Vaccination will be resumed from the next day if vaccine stocks become available. A humble appeal is being made to the citizens of Mumbai to cooperate with the BMC administration," stated a press statement issued by the BMC.

‘Doses diverted for students'

BJP MLA from Andheri, Ameet Satam, claimed that doses meant for small centres in Andheri were transferred to major hospitals to meet the students' needs. However, civic sources said that there is an overall shortage of doses and that they are not able to accommodate all students coming in for the vaccine.

Many people had to return empty-handed on Wednesday as centres were closed amid the shortage, especially in Andheri. Wednesday's numbers, too, show a drop in the inoculation of those aged 45-59 years as compared to Monday and Tuesday.

Satam said, "When the BMC did not have enough stock for special drives, why did it organise them? The 45+ population is running from one centre to another to get their dose, we are getting calls about centres being shut. The doses that were given to various centres are being transferred to just one hospital where the students are being inoculated. And even that is not properly happening as the students are sent back owing to the shortage."

Congress leader Mohsin Haider said, "BMC centres have been shut for almost two days. On enquiry, they are saying that there is a shortage and that they were not allotted doses. But at the same time, private hospitals are giving doses and charging for them. If there is stock available with private players, it means vaccines are being manufactured but not being given to the government. This needs to be probed."

However, a civic official said, "All these allegations are rubbish. We are low on doses thus many small centres were shut. We have also limited our stock for students to 300 doses at each of the three hospitals - Kasturba, Rajawadi and Cooper."

39k inoculated in 18-44 group

Meanwhile, On Wednesday, 49,833 beneficiaries were inoculated at civic, government and private centres. Over 44,000 inoculations were done in private centres. There were two cases of adverse effects. The city has so far inoculated a total of 33,74,261 beneficiaries, out of which 7,54,955 have been administered both doses. There were 39,530 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years along with 101 lactating mothers. The turnout of senior citizens was 3,071, while of those aged 45-59 was 5,559. The number of healthcare workers inoculated was 434 and that of the frontline workers was 427.

81
No. of units across the city, with a combined capacity of 8,000, where the vaccination drive was conducted on Wednesday

300
Maximum daily vaccines to be given to students at Cooper, Rajawadi and Kasturba hospitals