Mumbai: Small vaccination centres left high and dry

A beneficiary receives a dose of Covaxin at Nair hospital on Thursday. Pic/Ashish Raje

The BMC's decentralisation move to make public vaccination centres available in every nook and cranny of the city has hardly been a hit among Mumbaikars. A majority of the Covid-19 vaccine beneficiaries are either heading to major or peripheral hospitals or private facilities.

Several citizens complained that most of the time they have to head back home as smaller public centres are either shut or they have run out of stock. Some said they turn away after standing in the queue for hours.

As the BMC hardly receives fresh stocks on time, the smaller public vaccination centres have to manage with just 100 doses a day. Of these, 50 are reserved for walk-ins and 50 for appointments.

This is further divided into 30 for second dose walk-ins and 20 for first dose. The same goes with the doses set aside for beneficiaries with appointments. The stocks are limited, but queues of walk-in beneficiaries at these centres aren't. This, in turn, is burdening the hospitals..

Manish More, a beneficiary who visited a centre in Andheri, said, "We are struggling to get vaccinated. Whenever we go to the centre, there is a long queue. We are asked to either come early the next day to try our luck or book an appointment online." "What is the point of having a vaccination centre so close to our homes if we cannot benefit from it?" he asked.

Home vaccination begins today, in K East ward

Home visits for the vaccination of people bedridden due to physical/medical reasons, including illness, will start from K East ward on an experimental basis from Friday (July 30). The government had directed the local authorities across the state to collect information of such beneficiaries. As per the procedure, those eligible for vaccination are supposed to send an email to the BMC at Covidvacc2bedridden@gmail.com, with their names, age, address, contact number, reason for being bedridden, etc., and request a home visit. The BMC has so far received 4,466 requests.

100
No. of doses allotted to small centres every day