No vaccinations in Mumbai today

BMC vaccination centre was kept notice on entrance of The vaccination center is closed today at Pahadi Municipal School, Goregaon in Mumbai. Pic/Satej Shinde

All public vaccination centres will be closed on Saturday, as the city didn't receive its fresh stock of vaccines until late Friday night. This is the third day within two weeks that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had to shut down its centres due to the unavailability of vaccines. All the public vaccination centres in the city were shut on Friday as well. Only private hospitals in the city with permission to carry out immunisation drives were open.

The public vaccination centres will be closed on Sunday as well, as per the regular schedule.

A woman poses for a photo after taking her anti-COVID shot, at a private centre, on Friday. Pic/AFP

The BMC and state government hospitals together have 303 vaccination centres across the city, with the capacity to inoculate 63,000 people daily. However, they have not been able to run at their full capacity, thanks to irregular supply. On Monday night, the city had only two days worth of supply - 1.20 lakh doses that lasted till Thursday.

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"The fresh stock has not arrived, and we don't even have any information about when and how much stock will come. Vaccination will resume once our stock is replenished," said Dr Mangala Gomare, health executive officer of the BMC.

A woman walks past the entrance of a closed vaccination centre on Friday. Pic/AFP

This is for the fifth time since June 21 that vaccination in the city had to be halted due to the shortage of vaccines. The first time the BMC struggled with the drive was on June 25. Due to the delayed arrival of the vaccine, it could run the centres only from 2 pm to 5 pm. This situation arose again on July 6. However, on July 1, the BMC had to close all the centres due to the unavailability of vaccines.

63,000
No. of people BMC, state-run hospitals can vaccinate daily

303
Total civic- and state govt-run vax centres in the city