Mumbai set to get its vaccine doses today

Maha receives 963,000 Covishield vials, says health minister; city to start vaccination drive at 9 centres on January 16

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will on January 16 start its coronavirus vaccination drive at nine centres across Mumbai with the official launch at Cooper Hospital in Juhu. Mumbai will receive its vaccine vials on Wednesday, even as it waits for intimation from the state on how many doses it will get in the first phase of the drive. Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday said the government has received 963,000 doses of the Covishield vaccine from Serum Institute of India (SII), Pune.

Police check a consignment truck carrying the Covid-19 vaccine from Pune on Tuesday. (Kalpesh Nukte/HT)

Earlier on Tuesday, a massive pan-India inoculation drive against Covid-19 — the world’s biggest — was set in motion with the Covishield vaccine leaving Pune for 13 cities across the country, four days before vaccination is scheduled to begin on Saturday.

In the first phase of the drive, health workers will be vaccinated, with BMC already registering 125,000 lakh health workers on the Cowin app — an automated system launched by the Central government to systematically administer vaccine shots across the country.

The vaccine doses will be stored at a temporary cold storage facility set up on the ground floor of the F-South ward office in Parel, until the civic body prepares the regional vaccine storage (RVS) five-storey Parivar building at Kanjurmarg, which has been identified as the centre for storing doses.

Municipal commissioner IS Chahal confirmed to HT that Mumbai will receive its vaccine doses from the state on Wednesday and that the vaccination drive will start as scheduled on January 16.

The nine vaccination centres in Mumbai are: The four major hospitals — KEM Hospital, BYL Nair Hospital, Cooper Hospital and Sion Hospital; four peripheral hospitals — Bhabha Hospital in Bandra, VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz, Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar and Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli; and the Covid-19 facility at Bandra-Kurla Complex.

The centres have a total of 72 booths for vaccination, and each booth will be handled by a team of five vaccinators.

Dr Mangala Gomare, BMC’s executive health officer, said, “The nine vaccination centres with a total of 72 booths have a capacity to vaccinate 14,000 people a day. Once the drive is launched on January 16, it will continue every day until the beneficiaries shortlisted for the first phase are vaccinated. We have not received information on when the second phase will start. We are also yet to receive information on how many doses we will get in the first lot on Wednesday.”

Swapnaja Kshirsagar, assistant commissioner, F-South ward, where the doses will be stored temporarily, said, “We have vacated a room on the ground floor of the ward office building and handed it over to the civic health department for storing vaccine doses. All logistics thereafter are being handled by the health department.”

The storage facility at F-South ward has a total of 10 ice-lined refrigerators with a capacity to store up to 600,000 vaccine doses at a time, according to Dr Gomare.

The distribution mechanism already existing under the routine immunisation programme shall be implemented for Covid-19 vaccine. Additional vehicles will be deployed for transporting the vaccine from the Kanjurmarg facility to the vaccine centres with the help of police. Deans and medical superintendents of the hospitals will identify dedicated persons (pharmacists or cold chain handlers) for maintaining the inventory of Covid -19 vaccine when it is made available from the central storage. Dr Gomare said, “We will inform the police that the vaccines are being distributed to the vaccination centres.”

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, in-charge of the public health department, said, “The BMC has to pick up the vaccine doses from the manufacturer. We have already sent vehicles to Pune and they have reached the manufacturer. Hopefully they will pack and leave by tonight [Tuesday night] itself.”

Regarding the storage facility at F-South ward office, Kakani said, “Even though the Kanjurmarg storage facility is ready, it is large and in the first phase we are going to get fewer doses in comparison. So we have not activated the facility yet. The F-South ward office is centrally located, so it will also be easier to transport the doses to all centres from here, instead of from Kanjurmarg. Once the facility at F-South office is full, we will begin to store at Kanjurmarg.”