Mumbai: 4,500 register to get shots at home

BMC hopes home vaccination drive for the bedridden and the needy will help fill a gap in the above-60 population group

Mumbai: 4,500 register to get shots at home

A woman gets vaccinated at Nair hospital on July 2. File pic

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has received at least 4,500 applications for vaccinations at home for bedridden citizens. The corporation has started scrutinising the applications and has estimated that the number will increase once the drive starts on August 2.

The issue of vaccinating bedridden people had been discussed even before the drive began and the high court had asked the state government to make an action plan.

Accordingly, the State and the BMC appealed to citizens on July 17 to send detailed information about bedridden people through email. “People need to send the name, age, address, contact number, the reason for the illness of the bedridden person. The email has to be sent to covidvacc2bedridden@gmail.com,” said a BMC officer.

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A large number of people have still not visited centres for vaccination. File pic

“Till now, more than 4,500 applications have been received and we have sent them to the wards concerned for scrutiny. After checking their genuineness, the health team will arrange a visit for vaccination from August 2 onwards,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner.

As per the BMC’s estimate, there are more than 25 lakh senior citizens in the city. Only 9.82 lakh have received at least the first dose and out of these, 5.76 lakh have been vaccinated with both doses. So there is a larger population that has still not visited or has not been able to visit centres for the shots. The number may increase once the drive starts. But the BMC administration is not too keen on the prospect. “The preventive vaccination is for those who are bedridden due to physical/medical reasons, including illness and age. But we are estimating that others who can come to vaccination centres will also apply for home visits once people know about the facility. We can’t redirect our workforce that has already been burdened for the past one and a half years,” said an officer on the condition of anonymity.