Mumbai: 'Night curfew off from January 5,' says BMC

Cops ask people to vacate Juhu beach on New Year`s Eve. File pic

Mumbaikars will soon get some much-needed relief with the BMC considering not extending the night curfew beyond January 5. The decision was taken at a meeting with the municipal commissioner on Monday. The civic body also plans to increase the number of vaccination centres and eventually vaccinate up to 50,000 people daily though it's still not clear how many vaccines it would get from the Centre in the first phase.

The state government had imposed the night curfew from December 22 to January 5 to restrict people from gathering in groups for Christmas and New Year celebrations. A senior civic official said, "As the number of new cases and deaths is on the decline, we don't intend on extending the night curfew." The official added that citizens had behaved responsibly.

More vaccination centres

In another move, the BMC is going to increase the number of vaccination centres considerably. Initially, the civic body had prepared eight hospitals, including four medical colleges and four peripheral hospitals, and there were eight centres on standby mode. Now it plans to extend the vaccination programme to a total of 75 centres.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said, "Currently we can vaccinate 12,000 people a day. After these centres get ready, the capacity will increase to 50,000 vaccinations daily. The centres will be ready two-three days before vaccines arrive."

Apart from four medical colleges, 12 out of the 16 peripheral hospitals, eight jumbo COVID centres, about 40 dispensaries, 10 maternity homes and four speciality hospitals, including Kasturba, will be centres.

"There are about 1.25 lakh healthcare workers, including those from civic-run and private hospitals. The advanced capacity will help us vaccinate all frontline workers within two to three days," added Kakani.

However, he is still not sure of the number of vaccines they would get from the central government in the first phase but expects delivery within a week. In the second phase, police officers and in the third phase senior citizens will get vaccinated.