20 March,2021 07:41 AM IST | Mumbai | Ankita Mishra
Senior citizens in queue to get vaccinated | Pic: Satej Shinde
The central government, on Tuesday, stated that Maharashtra is witnessing the second wave of COVID-19 and setting up contact tracing is crucial at this juncture.
With nearly 3,000 cases, on Friday, Mumbai recorded the highest single-day spike since the beginning of the pandemic. Meanwhile, as the city witnesses an alarming surge in new coronavirus cases, the number of senior citizens turning up for vaccination has come down.
While keeping a pandemic in check and making sure the vaccination drive runs smoothly is a challenging affair, the real task would be to vaccinate the general masses.
Mid-day online spoke to Dr. Daksha Shah, deputy executive health officer of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), on how the civic body plans to roll out the vaccine for people below 45 years of age.
Upon asking how the BMC plans to vaccinate the general public and what are the perceived challenges, Dr. Shah says, "A plan will be put in place after we are done vaccinating senior citizens." She adds, "While a list of guidelines is yet to be curated, the plan to vaccinate the masses would not be very different from what we have right now i.e. setting up vaccination centres at BMC hospitals and a cluster of private hospitals were included in the programme."
"Right now, we have around 77 centres vaccinating senior citizens. In the future when the demand rises we will add more centres and more resources to carry out vaccination," she adds.
"We are utilising our resources to the fullest, for example, the JUMBO facilities are working on max capacity, and several private hospitals are working 24/7 to ensure the programme is executed smoothly. Similarly, when the guidelines to vaccinate the masses are formed we will remain prepared. It will be a big challenge but we will navigate through it like we have done so far."
List of active vaccination centres in Mumbai issued by BMC
