All 132 vaccination centres to be functional from Monday: BMC

A week after running only half the vaccination centres in the city, the BMC said that all its 132 vaccination centres will be functional from Monday after it received 1.5 lakh doses of Covishield and 8,000 doses of Covaxin vaccine on Sunday.

The current stock will last for three days, i.e., till April 28.

“We have received 1.5 lakh doses of Covishield vaccine today. All vaccination centres in Mumbai shall be functional tomorrow,” said BMC Commissioner I S Chahal. However, BMC said that at some centres vaccination might start late.

BMC received 8,000 doses of Covaxin on Sunday. “Covaxin will be only available at select centres for the second dose, due to extremely limited existing stock,” added Chahal.

There is an acute shortage of vaccine supply, BMC had stated on Friday. On Saturday, 57 centres had discontinued vaccination drives. Following inadequate supply and depleting vaccine stock, BMC on Sunday had shut 94 vaccination centres in private and government-run hospitals. The 39 centres functioning on Sunday were running only in the first half of the day. Many citizens who had lined up for the first dose were asked to check later, as preference was given to those coming for the second dose.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Sunday said that for the third phase of the vaccination — for those above 18 years of age — BMC is planning to deploy mobile vans in some areas to ensure maximum coverage. Earlier this week, Cabinet Minister Aaditya Thackeray had asked BMC to start vaccination centres at 227 electoral wards for the third phase.

On April 23, BMC had received 50,000 doses of Covishield and 1.1 lakh doses on April 20. Since Monday, the temporary closure of private vaccination centres led to crowding at civic-run facilities in the city. Over half of the private vaccination centres in the city suspended vaccination since Monday. The number of citizens inoculated in a day had dropped to 20,000-30,000 from 50,000 per day last week.

There are 132 vaccination centres in the city — 42 at civic-run hospitals, 17 in state government-run hospitals and 73 at private hospitals. Three new civic-run centres will be functional from Monday. Till Sunday, BMC had vaccinated 3.67 lakh people with both doses and 18.69 lakh people with the first dose.