Day 7 of Covid-19 vaccination: Mumbai sees 68% turnout

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) completed seven days of Covid-19 immunisation in Mumbai on Wednesday with 68% turnout

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) completed seven days of Covid-19 immunisation in Mumbai on Wednesday with 68% turnout. Of the 7,700 selected healthcare workers, 5,197 were vaccinated. Eight people experienced minor giddiness, called adverse event following immunisation (AEIF), and were kept under observation for 30 minutes before being discharged.

A Covid-19 vaccine shot being administered to woman at Rajawadi Hospital. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

The civic body increased its vaccination centres from 10 to 11, by starting vaccination at the Seven Hills hospital in the western suburbs, along with the 10 existing vaccination centres that have been functional since January 16. In the coming days, the BMC will also add more vaccination centres, including the Jumbo Covid-19 facilities at NESCO in Goregaon, Dahisar, Mulund, and the jumbo facility at Richarson and Cruddas (RC) in Byculla.

The 10 existing vaccination centres in Mumbai are four major hospitals – King Edward Memorial Hospital, BYL Nair Hospital, Cooper hospital and Sion Hospital; four peripheral hospitals - Bhabha at Bandra, VN Desai at Santacruz, Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar and Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar hospital, Kandivli; the Covid facility at Bandra Kurla Complex; and the state-run JJ Hospital in South Mumbai.

So far, BMC has vaccinated a total of 23,339 healthcare workers over seven days, of which 35 people reported minor AEIF immediately after receiving the shots. None had to be hospitalised so far.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner incharge of the public health department in the civic body, said, “We are scaling up slowly. Initially we started with 40 booths at 10 centres. We have got permission from the government to increase the booths. We will start vaccination at NESCO jumbo facility on Thursday or Friday, and eventually also start vaccination at the jumbo facilities in Dahisar, Mulund, and RC Byculla in a phased manner, so we can cover more healthcare workers.” The vaccination drive will also take place in the city on Thursday.

On the first three days of the vaccination drive, on January 16, 19, and 20, Mumbai saw a relatively low turnout for vaccination, between 50% and 52%, which increased to 92% on the fourth day (January 22), and 90% on the fifth day (January 23). On the sixth day of the drive, Mumbai saw a decrease in the turnout at 77%, but had vaccinated 5,005 healthcare workers.

The number of teams carrying out the drive also increased to 77 on Wednesday, from 65 on Monday, 45 on January 23, 39 on January 22, 33 on January 20, and 32 on January 21.

On Wednesday, KEM Hospital vaccinated 595 people, and has so far vaccinated 3,712 people; Sion hospital vaccinated 514 healthcare workers (2,021 so far); Cooper Hospital vaccinated 456 people (2,591 so far); Nair Hospital vaccinated 534 people (2,535 so far); VN Desai Hospital vaccinated 218 people (626 so far); Dr Ambedkar Hospital vaccinated 829 people (3,814 so far); Rajawadi hospital vaccinated 783 people (3,455 people so far); BKC jumbo facility vaccinated 557 people (2,345 so far); Bhabha Hospital vaccinated 317 people (1,761 so far); JJ Hospital vaccinated 18 people (163 so far); and SevenHills hospital vaccinated 376 people.