No vaccines in Mumbai today; stock expected tonight, says BMC

The Dahisar Jumbo Covid-19 facility ran out of vaccines on Wednesday. Pic/Satej Shinde

The shortage of vaccines has struck again after almost a week, due to which the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to suspend the vaccination drive for a day. "Due to insufficient stock of vaccines, the inoculation drive will not be held on July 1, 2021 at all government and municipal centres in Mumbai," informed civic authorities. Wednesday saw a shortage of vaccines at many vaccination centres in the city and many smaller centres were shut.

"Citizens of Mumbai are constantly informed about the extent to which the stock of vaccines will be obtained and appropriate decisions are taken. Vaccinations will be resumed once vaccine stocks become available. A humble appeal is being made to the citizens of Mumbai to cooperate with the BMC administration," read the official press statement of the BMC.

A person is vaccinated at Sahakar Cinema ground, Chembur on June 28. Pic/Sayyed Sameer Abedi

The vaccines stock is expected to come in latest by tonight, and so the drive is likely to resume from Friday and continue on Saturday as well. However, the civic body has decided that Sunday will be a general holiday and no public centers will be open for inoculation. While the civic body has been getting the vaccine stock thrice a week, the aggressive inoculation it has currently taken up, has been resulting in the vaccine shortage at a higher pace.

A civic official said, "We are not going to slow down and try to stock the incoming doses as we have opened enough centers. We will give the vaccines to hospitals and they will continue their drive until their stock lasts."

However, due to the shortage, the number of beneficiaries dropped from over 90K to just 63,579 on Wednesday. The civic body inoculated about 25,122 beneficiaries, while 57 private hospitals inoculated about 36,054 beneficiaries. The number seems to have dropped even in the case of private hospitals, compared to earlier this week.

On Wednesday the total number of people vaccinated so far in the city was recorded at 54,35,731 inoculations. The number of senior citizens inoculated on Wednesday were 6,045, citizens above the age of 45 were 19,695, and those in the age group of 18 to 44 years were 37,118. There was just one case of adverse effects reported at a private centre.

25,122
No. of people vaccinated by the civic body