Mumbai corporators demand citizen-friendly online booking system for Covid vax slots

The corporators across the party lines have demanded that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should make the online booking of vaccination slots more citizen-friendly

The corporators across the party lines have demanded that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) should make the online booking of vaccination slots more citizen-friendly. Further, from Thursday onwards, vaccination for pregnant women will take off at 35 vaccination centres across the city.

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The corporators said that every ward opens slots at a separate time, which leads to confusion. Hence, they have suggested that online slots for vaccination centres be released at a fixed time across the city and the information be shared on social media platforms.

BJP corporator Abhijit Samant said, “I have written a letter to the municipal commissioner requesting that there should be a uniform time for all wards to release their slots on the Co-WIN portal. Further, the BMC should also decide on a fixed time to announce whether there will be vaccination or not on the next day. There are a lot of citizens who are struggling to get an appointment for their second slot. This makes it more difficult for citizens to get their slot booked online.”

Asif Zakaria, Congress corporator from Bandra said, “More citizen-friendly steps should be taken by the BMC when it comes to vaccination. There should be a uniform time for releasing slots. I have seen senior citizens struggling to book their slots online as there is no fixed time when the slots are released.”

Zakaria added, “Also, for walk-in vaccination citizens form a queue at 5am or 6am and get free only by noon. I have requested the BMC to arrange water, tea and biscuits to be given to citizens. The citizens will happily pay provided they get such a facility. The BMC’s earlier plan of having vaccination on a walk-in basis for three days a week and on the basis of online appointments for the rest of the week was better. It was catering to all citizens, and everyone was getting covered.”

Meanwhile, on Wednesday 65,244 citizens were vaccinated taking the total count of vaccination to 6,233,629. On Thursday, vaccination will be conducted between 2 pm to 5 pm owing to limited availability of vaccine doses.

The BMC in a statement on Wednesday said that pregnant women in the city will be able to undertake vaccination at 35 vaccination centres across the city on a walk-in basis and no prior appointment will be required for the same.

In the statement, the BMC said, “Necessary training has been given to all the concerned staff on Covid vaccination duty to give proper counselling to pregnant women coming for vaccination. Those pregnant women who will be given should be in the full post-pregnancy period. However, women who have developed covid-19 and who have been treated with monoclonal antibodies or convalescent plasma will be vaccinated after 12 weeks of the same.”