BMC writes to state for additional 6 lakh booster doses amid 5X surge in demand

According to the data from the Cowin, on Friday, the city vaccination centres saw 12,422 boosters doses taken by the 18-60 age group

Mumbai: The city saw a nearly five times rise in booster dose intake on day one after the Centre announced free booster doses for citizens between the 18-60 age group for 75 days from July 15. Seeing the overwhelming response, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has requested 6 lakh vaccine doses from the state for the 75 days free booster dose campaign.

A health worker inoculates a beneficiary with booster shot against Covid-19 after the Centre announced free booster shots from today for citizens between the 18-60 age group for 75 days to mark the country's 75th year of Independence, at ESIS Hospital, Vashi, in Navi Mumbai, India, on Friday (Bachchan Kumar/ HT PHOTO)

According to the data from the Cowin, on Friday, the city vaccination centres saw 12,422 boosters doses taken by the 18-60 age group of which 2,656 doses were taken in the private vaccination centre while the rest were administered at government vaccination centres. On July 14, only 2,383 booster doses were given in the 18-60 age group.

“I wanted to take the booster earlier but it was chargeable. Since the Covid-19 cases are fluctuating and the government has made it free for us, we decided to take the booster shot,” said Shivkumar Mishra, 46, an auto driver who came to the Malad Jumbo Covid-19 Centre-run by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) along with his wife and 19-year-old son.

Prasanna Edekar, a 50-year-old designer who stays in Malad, came to the jumbo centre during his lunch break. “I got Covid between the 1st and 2nd vaccine, so, I am taking the booster dose as a precaution. Earlier, there were charges for this, now it is free of cost so, I am taking it. My house and office are nearby, and it was convenient for me,” he said.

The booster dose for the 18-60 age group was started on April 10 in private vaccination centres. Since then only 3,26,972 beneficiaries in this age group have taken the dose till July 14. Mumbai has an estimated 92.3 lakh population above 18-60.

Before the booster dose was made free for the 18-60 years age group, on average, Mumbai saw close to 2,000 booster dose uptake in this category of which only one-third of uptake is from the 45-60 age group.

BMC’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) Jumbo Covid-19 Vaccine Centre (CVC) which administered 1,150 booster doses on Friday, had asked for 2,000 vaccine doses for July 16.

“We are expecting more people on July 16 as it is Saturday. On average, for the last three months, we did 300-400 vaccinations a day. Today, we saw 1,260 vaccinations out of which 1,150 were booster doses,” said Dr Rajesh Dere, dean, BKC Jumbo CVC.

A BMC health official said they have Covid-19 vaccines lasting for the next 5 days and have requested for additional supply. “We have written to the state health official to provide us with six lakh vaccine doses for the free booster dose campaign for 18-60 age. We are expecting the supply soon. We expect a rise in demand for booster doses in the coming days,” said the official.

Meanwhile, the private hospitals said they did not see a big difference in the vaccination uptake which reflected in the vaccination numbers too.

Dr Prince Surana, CEO of Surana Sethia Hospital, who suffered a huge loss due to vaccine expiry in March-April, said they now buy limited vaccine stocks that will last for a week. He said the free booster dose for 18-60 won’t affect them.

“People who prefer to go to a private vaccination centre will continue to go there even if it is free at the government centres. We continue to get the same response as before the free announcement,” he said.