Mumbai: BMC halts Covid-19 jabs for 18-44, to use stocks on 45+

A 93-year-old grandmother receives vax at a drive-in centre on Wednesday

The civic body said on Wednesday that it had temporarily suspended vaccination of beneficiaries in the 18-44 category, a day after health minister Rajesh Tope told the media that it might happen soon over shortage of shots. Sources said the BMC will divert all the resources to inoculate those above 45 without any hassles.

The BMC had started the drive for the 18-44 group on May 1 and had also added centres where jabs were available after initially restricting the vaccination points to five. Officials said 39,029 such beneficiaries have been given their first dose in the last 12 days. With the introduction of this age group, the vaccines were used up faster and those for the second doses had to wait longer.

Also Read: It's official: Covid-19 vaccinations for 18-44 age group halted in Maharashtra

Meanwhile on Wednesday, despite adding more centres, the number of beneficiaries vaccinated are hardly any compared to the time when the drive was started. There were 28,559 citizens who were administered the doses at civic and government centres. No case of adverse effects was reported during the day. The BMC will be starting 10 new vaccination centres from Thursday.

The city has so far given jabs to 27,86,048 beneficiaries, of which 6,92,620 have been fully vaccinated. The turnout of senior citizens was 10,704 whereas those aged 45 and above were 9,960. The number of healthcare workers that were administered the shots was 1,458 and that of the frontline workers was 2,265. Of those aged between 18 and 44 years, 4,172 were given the jabs.