Short on stocks, BMC cancels vaccine drive for Thursday

MUMBAI: Faced with poor supplies, the BMC has cancelled the vaccination drive across the city’s public health facilities on Thursday. This would be the fourth instance when the civic body has had to halt the vaccination drive for want of stocks.
Of 49,833 jabs given on Wednesday, 44,323 were at private facilities; barely over 5,510 were at public centres.
Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said the city has been receiving doses in small instalments of 20,000 and 30,000, which not only slows down the drive but hampers planning and distribution. “The shortage is solely responsible for the slowdown in public vaccination. We are hoping to get some doses on Thursday, in which case we may be able to resume by Friday,” he said. Vaccination on Friday will be through online appointments.
Numbers show the government’s drive has been slowing in the last seven days while private initiatives are thriving.
In the last week, 2,14,694 doses were administered at paid-for private vaccination centres while 1,29,256 doses were given at public centres. Many private hospitals are expecting more stocks next week.
BMC received 2.6lakh doses in January, 5.7lakh in February, 8.1lakh in March, 9.4lakh in April and 5.2lakh in May. Overall, Mumbai has got 31.17lakh doses. A civic official said they failed to persuade Serum Institute of India, makers of Covishield, to participate in a global tender floated by BMC to build an inventory.
Of 49,833 doses administered on Wednesday, 39,530 were given to 18-44 years group; 5,559 to the 45-59 category and 3,071 to senior citizens. Recipients included 101 lactating mothers. On the third day of walk-ins for students, 711 took the shot. In all, 2,586 foreign bound students have got it so far.
The state on Tuesday vaccinated 2,5,1703 in all.