Covid-19: Crowding causes chaos at Dahisar, BKC vaccination centres in Mumbai

People stand close to each other with complete disregard for physical distancing rule, at Dahisar Jumbo Centre, on Wednesday. Pic/Twitter@ANI

Two vaccination centres in the city, one each at BKC and Dahisar, were faced with a jumbo crowd on Wednesday. Besides the beneficiaries who had registered online, thousands had just walked in to get inoculated against the novel Coronavirus. Physical distancing went for a toss as people stood close to each other, which many visitors said could become the cause for further spread of the virus.

People who visited the Dahisar Jumbo Centre were even more disappointed as most of them had waited in long queues since 8 am to get tokens, but the vaccination started only at 12 pm. mid-day saw long queues outside both the Dahisar and BKC vaccination centres As vaccination centres in Dahisar were closed since Friday due to non-availability of doses, people who heard about the reopening rushed to the jumbo centre here early morning. Among the beneficiaries were those aged 45 and above, who had come for their second dose of vaccine.

The Dahisar vaccination centre officials issued 3,000 tokens, but only 2,000 beneficiaries had registered online for Wednesday's appointment; the 1,000 others were walk-ins. Many of them had travelled from Kandivli and Malad without registration after hearing about the reopening of the vaccination centre.

Many beneficiaries returned home without taking the shot. Those who could not be vaccinated on Wednesday were told to return on Thursday at 7 am for the token, which will be distributed two hours later, from 9 am.

Kandivli resident Rajesh Gohil, 66, said, "Helpline number was not available, so I visited this centre alone. But I learnt that tokens were already distributed in the morning. Now, I have to come tomorrow [Thursday] at 7 am and stand in line for two hours for the token distribution to start. I don't know if after all that whether I will get a token tomorrow."

Omprakash, who took her mother to the centre, said, "I don't understand how my mother will get the vaccine. She is 73-year-old. People come here to get protection from Covid-19, but the lack of physical distancing puts us at risk of contracting the virus.."

Bipin Desai, a 72-year-old Dahisar resident, said, "I have been waiting for the second dose for the past many days. I visited Dahisar centre but it was closed for the past 4-5 days and the helpline number was also not available." Dahisar resident Jyoti Soni said, I was so happy to hear that vaccine centres have reopened. But, when I reached Dahisar centre, I saw a huge crowd and no one was maintaining a safe physical distance. Scared of contracting the virus, I returned home."

People who visited the BKC Jumbo Covid-19 Centre criticised the administration for the unmanageable crowd. Civic officials said the crowd was unexpected as many people had gathered for their vaccine without an appointment.

Dr Urvi Parekh, who had taken her elderly parents to BKC on Wednesday, tweeted that the BKC vaccination centre had a common queue for beneficiaries of both first and second doses of all age groups. She said it took her parents three hours to get vaccinated.

Another citizen, Paru Shah, tweeted, "BKC is totally chaotic! Social distancing has gone down the drain. What's the point if vaccine centres become potential hubs of infection due to mismanagement of crowds? Such a big facility but poorly managed."

"Yesterday [I] managed to book an appointment for the first dose of vaccine at BKC centre (at 1-3 pm). However, after reaching there well before time, we were told that there is no stock of the vaccine," Gaurav Shah, an engineer, tweeted.

BMC spokesperson blamed the people and said there was no mismanagement at the BKC centre. "Citizens were requested to come after 12 pm as doses were to come in the morning. Local administration and police also appealed to the citizens. However, people started crowding the centre in the morning itself. However, once doses arrived, everything was well managed and vaccination was carried out smoothly."