Private centres gave 50 per cent jabs in past 4 months in Mumbai

Beneficiaries at a vaccination centre in Prabhadevi on Saturday. Pic/Suresh Karkera

Even after the Centre announced free vaccines to all eligible citizens, 50 per cent of the beneficiaries in Mumbai paid for their anti-COVID shots in the past four months. The shift to private facilities was prompted by never-ending queues outside civic- and state-run centres and frequent suspension of the vaccination drive due to shortage.

So far, 6 crore vaccines have been administered across the state, and 98 lakh have been given in Mumbai. Between May 1 and September 4, a total of 73.74 lakh vaccines were given in the city, and 36.48 lakh were paid (i.e. around 50 per cent).

Of the 11 lakh people eligible for the second dose in August, 8 lakh were vaccinated and more than half of them paid for their vaccine.

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Initially, the private centres administered the vaccines given by the government for health and frontline workers. From March onwards, vaccination started at private centres with service charges ranging from Rs 150 to Rs 250. After the private centres were allowed to procure vaccines directly from the manufacturers in May, the cost went past Rs 1,000 and people turned towards free vaccination.

In May, only 2.52 lakh out of 8.47 lakh doses were given at private centres, including the ones given by the government.

On June 9, the central government capped the price of vaccines for private centres, and as the state had not yet opened vaccination for the people in the 18-44 years age group, private centres saw a better response. But in July, as the fake vaccine scam was exposed, people started giving preference to public centres.

As access to local trains were allowed to full vaccinated individuals and queues started to get longer at public centres, demand for paid vaccination started growing again.

The BMC has said that it has an infrastructure to give over 1 lakh doses daily, but it cannot control the flow of vaccines. "About 80 per cent of eligible citizens in Mumbai have taken at least one dose and 30 per cent are fully vaccinated. The city is number one in terms of percentage of vaccinated population in major cities of India. Private hospitals of Mumbai proved to be helpful and we are thankful for their participation in the vaccination drive," said BMC commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal.