Mumbai: Wait for Russian-made vaccine Sputnik gets longer

Citizens wait at a civic vaccination centre in Abhyudaya Nagar, Kalchowkie, on Saturday. Pic/Ashish Raje

With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) deciding against the direct procurement of vaccines, the wait for the Russian-made vaccine, Sputnik, has lengthened as it will be available in civic centres only after the government officially distributes it. None of the civic officials knows when that will be.

Meanwhile, with over 70,000 to 80,000 vaccinations taking place in civic centres, the civic body needs lakhs of doses at least thrice a week and it has only the government to rely on.

A man gets vaccinated at the Pratiksha Nagar Municipal School in Sion last week. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar

MLAs and MPs, citizen groups and companies have been organising camps privately to ensure more citizens get inoculated, thus reducing the load on the system and also helping citizens and the underprivileged. The civic body now has to plan the procurement of its resources as it requires more doses considering that over 250 civic-run vaccine centres are operating and allowing walk-ins for the working population of 18- to 44-year-old.

Civic officials, however, said that while they have adopted an aggressive vaccination policy, the stock is still coming on a hand-to-mouth basis - which means distributing whatever is coming in and letting centres decide how much they want to use. The only instruction that civic officials have given the centres is that no one should be turned back.

Bigger picture

Sources said that the BMC won't be too worried if 50-100 centres run out of stock, but will see the bigger picture to resume vaccinations at the earliest. Further, in good news for the city, earlier the BMC was getting 40,000 to 50,000 doses twice or thrice a week. But now the stock is received in lakhs and there is an indication from the government that more vaccines will be made available next month, thus speeding up the drive.

A civic vaccination centre at Sree Cinema in Mahim. Pic/Ashish Raje

While the state has touched the three crore mark, the city has reached 50 lakh beneficiaries. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, "We received a huge stock on Friday and we also received some stock in thousands on Sunday. We are again more doses on Monday night or latest by Tuesday. With this, we will be in a better position as compared to last month and early this month. Hence, the drive for the 18-44 years age group is undisturbed and smooth."

250
No. of civic centres currently operating in city