Mumbai: Vaccination for second dose for 45+ restarts amid confusion

After a gap of four days, vaccination drive for the second dose for those in the 45+ age group restarted on Tuesday, leading to chaos and long queues as thousands rushed to several centres

After a gap of four days, vaccination drive for the second dose for those in the 45+ age group restarted on Tuesday, leading to chaos and long queues as thousands rushed to several centres. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will continue to vaccinate the 45+ age group for the second dose and 18-44 age group for the first dose on Wednesday too. There is a possibility that the vaccination for the first dose for above 45+ may start from Thursday, however, nothing is finalised, said BMC officials.

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Vaccination centres, including BKC centre, Shatabdi Govandi, ESIS Mulund, BARC, Kurla Bhabha, ran out of stock before noon, which the BMC officials claimed, was because they did not receive any stock from the Central government. They said vaccine doses from the reserve quota were used for the 18-44 age group. The BMC expects to have a substantial amount of vaccine doses by Tuesday midnight.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “We are likely to get 150,000 vaccine doses by Tuesday night and they will be used for the vaccination drive on Wednesday. However, we will continue vaccinating citizens above the age of 45+ for the second dose on Wednesday and first dose for the 18-44 age group.”

Several citizens above the age of 45 also went to get their first dose but were sent back by the authorities. Firuza Dastoor, an Andheri resident, said, “My parents and I were scheduled for a second dose. My parents have been eligible for the second dose for the past one week, but have not been getting it despite going to the vaccination centre thrice. Finally, on Tuesday we went to SevenHills hospital for the fourth time and got the doses. Our experience at SevenHills was good.”

Another Andheri resident Vicckey Ajwani said, “I had taken my first dose of Covaxin a month ago and my second dose was scheduled 28 days later in the last week of April. However, I had to go to Cooper Hospital multiple times to figure out when and how I will get my second dose. This is not the experience one would want for vaccination. Also, there is always a risk of getting exposed to the virus considering the long queues and large crowds at the vaccination centres. It was only after a lot of struggle and multiple calls that I got my second dose.”

Meanwhile civic authorities made operational the first drive-in vaccination centres in the city at Dadar in a parking lot. According to BMC officials, it got good response there. Senior citizens and specially abled will be vaccinated at the centre. According to BMC’s data, 417 citizens were vaccinated in 227 cars on Tuesday at the drive-in vaccination centre.