COVID-19: BMC targets one lakh vaccinations per day as new cases reach near 2000 mark

MUMBAI: With an aim to speed up the COVID-19 vaccination drive, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has set a target of inoculating one lakh people in the city every day, BMC officials said on Tuesday.

Currently, 40,000 to 45,000 people are being given vaccine shots here in a day at around 85 immunisation centres, including 54 private hospitals, they said.

On Monday, 44,683 people received vaccine shots in Mumbai, according to the civic body.

During a review meeting last week, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal set the target of immunising one lakh people per day, specially after the government permitted round-the-clock vaccination in private hospitals, civic officials said.

With the addition of new vaccination centres and increasing the number of hours of the immunisation drive every day, the target can be achieved, they said.

Highlighting the reasons for speeding up the inoculation process, the civic body in a release last week said there are around 30 lakh senior citizens in Mumbai.

Hence, if the target one lakh vaccinations per day is achieved, the entire population of senior citizens could be covered in a month, it said.

BMC's Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said to achieve the target, they have planned to increase the civic-run vaccination facilities, apart from adding 29 centres in private hospitals.

"With the existing centres, we have vaccinated up to 48,000 people in a day. By adding more centres, we can easily cross 75,000 vaccinations per day. Hence, the target of one lakh vaccinations per day can be achieved with some more efforts," Kakani said.

According to BMC officials, the civic body had proposed round-the-clock vaccination in private hospitals and the government permitted it, but they are doubtful about the turnout, specially between 9 pm and 7am.

When asked about this, Kakani said though they have received the permission for conducting vaccination round-the- clock, their plan is to initially start with two shifts between 7 am and 9 pm.

Since the vaccination drive began on January 16 this year, so far 6,47,684 people have been inoculated in Mumbai.

These include 2,75,618 people above the age of 60 years, 1,98,711 health care workers, 1,36,288 front-line workers and 37,067 people between the age group of 45 and 59 with co- morbidities, as per the BMC data.