Mumbai: Nine units have COVID-19 vaccines, that will last 5 days, says BMC

Preparations for the vaccination drive on at Dr. R N Cooper Municipal General Hospital, in Vile Parle. Pic/Satej Shinde

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has delivered a major chunk of the COVID-19 vaccine doses it received on January 13 to the nine civic-run hospitals where the vaccination drive will kick off today. While each hospital has received different amounts of the vaccine, based on the active units they have, BMC officials said that the stock was enough to last for the next five days. The civic authorities also urged the healthcare workers to come forward and get vaccinated without being worried about its safety.

The civic body is all set to start the drive at the 40-odd units housed in the nine vaccination centres and is expected to at least vaccinate 4,000 people today. "The drive, which has been planned in two shifts will start around 11 am on both Saturday and Sunday and continue till 6 pm," said a civic official. Further, the vaccination drive will be carried out in three phases, starting with the healthcare workers, then frontline workers and eventually people above the age of 50 years and those with co-morbidities.

The BMC has sent out messages to those who would be given the vaccines on Saturday on their registered mobiles numbers through the CoWin app. The nine hospitals that are part of the drive include KEM Hospital, BYL Nair Hospital, Cooper Hospital and Sion Hospital followed by four peripheral hospitals - Bhabha Hospital in Bandra, VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz, Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar and Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli; and the COVID-19 facility at the Bandra-Kurla Complex.

Apart from the nine locations, for the third phase BMC plans to set up 63 centres where about 50,000 citizens would be vaccinated in a day. About 30 to 35 lakh citizens are expected to be vaccinated in the third phase. The BMC currently has only Covishield, as according to them, Covaxin had not yet arrived at the corporation's storage facility.

The first consignment of Covishield, which had 1,29,500 doses, arrived in Mumbai on January 13 around 5.30 am. The vaccine is being stored at the F/South ward office facility in Parel, However, not all of it has been delivered to the centres yet.

Speaking to mid-day, Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, "It is a huge responsibility that we are taking on from Saturday and we want the healthcare workers to come forward and participate in the drive. For now we have delivered sufficient number of doses to the hospitals to last for at least five days. As and when demand is raised, more doses will be delivered. We are prepared for the drive."

BMC suspends sub-engineer
The BMC has suspended a sub-engineer, Dinesh Gavande, on Friday after finding out that he, along with another two suspected officials of different agencies, were allowing international air passengers who arrived in the city to waive off their seven-day institutional quarantine. Passengers were compulsorily told to quarantine themselves after the new strain was reported.

The civic body has also registered a police complaint against the engineer and two other unnamed officials. The BMC has also lodged a full-fledged enquiry into this matter. The official was working at the airport as the civic staff was deployed there to ensure that travellers got their institutional quarantine space and protocols were followed.