The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has received 20,000 doses of Covishield vaccine that it will use to vaccine those in the18-44 age group, said Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner, BMC to BloombergQuint.
“On a pilot mode, we have activated five centres and are vaccinating 2,500 people everyday in the 18-44 age group. This stock will last for a week. Our demand is to get 1 lakh doses per day and as and when we get it we can accelerate our drive”.
Mumbai has approximately 49 lakh people in the age group of 18-44 years, he said.
As per the Modi government's new vaccine policy, announced on April 19, the vaccine eligibility age has been lowered to 18 years starting May 1. Vaccinating those between 18-44 years is the responsibility of states, according to the policy. The centre has been supplying vaccines to states to inoculate those above 45 years, healthcare and frontline workers.
But that supply has been sporadic in recent days, prompting the city to halt vaccination of those 45 and above on April 29. That halt persists.
Meanwhile, on May 1, vaccinations began in Mumbai for those in the 18-44 age group but in limited batches and at limited times.
“Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has received a limited vaccine stock and first dose vaccination for 18-44 age group will be conducted between 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. today”, India's richest civic body tweeted late at night on April 30.
Due to the low supplies of vaccines, the decision to allow registrations for the select centres is being taken on a daily basis.
Good evening Mumbai. Please note that there will be NO #vaccination for Mumbaikars 45 & above tomorrow either.
May 2, 2021
Slots shall open at 7.30 PM tonight for the 18-44 year olds to book themselves for tomorrow at the same 5 centres#YoungAndVaccinated #WeShallOvercome #mybmcupdateVaccine Supply
Just like several other cities in the country, the financial capital is also facing an acute shortage of vaccines. Social media is full of first-person accounts of people detailing their ordeal -- waiting in queues for a long duration only to be asked to return as the centre was out of vaccines.
As on May 1, Maharashtra had only 1.41 lakh doses available for the vaccination of 45+. While that's dwindled to a few thousand now the centre says over 10.5 lakh doses are in the supply pipeline. This will help restart vaccinations.
For the younger age groups, the state has been in conversation with the two domestic producers, Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech. States were given just 11 days to plan supplies for those aged 18-44.
Vaccination Centres
Mumbai has 141 active Covid Vaccination Centres, as per data shared by BMC on April 29. Of these, 50 CVCs are managed by BMC, 18 by the state and the remaining 73 by the central government and private entities.
Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, recently shared BMC's plans for vaccinating people who are 18 and above.
- 63 existing municipal/government vaccination centres will be available for the 45 years plus age category.
- 227 new municipal centres will be opened, one in each municipal corporator's ward for all citizens in 18 years plus age category.
- Presently, 73 vaccination centres in private hospitals would be increased to 100 plus and they will cater to vaccination for all citizens in the age category of 18 plus.
Maharashtra Vaccination Status
In his address on the eve of Maharashtra statehood day on May 1, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said that more than 1 crore 58 lakh citizens have been vaccinated in the state. “Our target is 8 lakh vaccinations per day”.
The state will require 12 crore does for vaccination of 5.71 crore citizens in the age group 18-44. He also appealed to the central government to make the registration app available to all the states separately so that there is no stress on the system.
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