Mumbai civic body budget: 10 million to get Covid vaccine

Vaccination of one crore citizens and construction of a new building in Kasturba Hospital to tackle communicable diseases are among the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plans for 2021-22, according to the budget announcements on Wednesday

Vaccination of one crore citizens and construction of a new building in Kasturba Hospital to tackle communicable diseases are among the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) plans for 2021-22, according to the budget announcements on Wednesday. The civic health department has been allocated ₹4,728.53 crore in the budget, 8% of the capital expenditure of the civic body.

Covid-19 vaccine shots being administered to people at Nair Hospital. (Satish Bate/HT Photo)

In his budget speech, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal said, “Computerised registry of people needing vaccination and undergoing vaccination, mega storage for whole Mumbai, training of various stake holders for vaccination, local cold storage by ILR refrigerators are being activated, Jumbo facility centers, major hospitals and important peripheral hospitals have been identified as vaccination centre. BMC’s eventual plan is to vaccinate around 1 crore citizens of Mumbai.”

On whether the BMC was prepared to finance vaccination for citizens of Mumbai, Chahal said, “The single-window for procurement of vaccines in the country is the Central government for now. All procurement will happen through the Centre, under the guidelines of both the Central and state government. The Central government, in its budget for the country, has reserved ₹31,000 crore for vaccination, and I guess this should answer question of where the money for vaccination will come from.”

Chahal added, “Our aim is to vaccinate one crore population and we need to understand that vaccinating the entire population is a process. Further, we have also undertaken repairs for civic hospitals and health centres.”

The BMC has proposed to improve the infrastructure of healthcare institutes, carry out major structural repairs at 29 hospitals, 287 health posts and/or dispensaries and 28 maternity homes for which ₹822 crore has been allocated.

Further, the BMC plans to invite tenders for construction of a new building to accommodate the existing wards of Kasturba Hospital, the first city hospital to be used as an isolation facility for Covid-19. The BMC has also allocated ₹5 crore for clinics-on-wheels wherein one van in each city, western and eastern suburbs, will give treatment to patients.

The BMC has also proposed to take efforts to explore other forms of medicine such as Unani, Ayurveda and a policy to check important health parameters of senior citizens at home.

As of Wednesday, Mumbai has vaccinated 58,623 health care workers in the first phase, and has 310,141 Covid-19 cases followed by 11,375 deaths.