Mumbai: Vaccine for 18-44 age group at private centres only

To prevent overcrowding at Covid-19 vaccination centres in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided that starting May 1, the government and civic vaccination centres will vaccinate only citizens over 45 years of age, while those in the 18 to 44 years age group will be vaccinated at private hospitals

To prevent overcrowding at Covid-19 vaccination centres in the city, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided that starting May 1, the government and civic vaccination centres will vaccinate only citizens over 45 years of age, while those in the 18 to 44 years age group will be vaccinated at private hospitals. Further, vaccination for them will be done only through appointments, and no walk-in vaccination will be allowed. However, the decision on who will have to pay and who would get the vaccine for free will be decided by the state government.

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According to the civic body, the citizens in 45 years and above age group will be vaccinated at 63 government and BMC-run vaccination centres and can also opt for private vaccination centres. Those in the 18-44 age group will have to go to 73 private hospital-run vaccination centres.

The civic body is also in the process to increase the vaccination centres from the current 134 to 389 to cater to the growing number of people to be vaccinated. The new arrangement for different centres for different age groups may change at a later stage, said civic officials. The vaccination for the age group between 18 to 44 is likely to kick off from Saturday.

The BMC, on Tuesday, also announced that it is in touch with vaccine manufacturers directly to procure vaccine doses for the city.

On Tuesday, the single-day highest 72,606 citizens were vaccinated in the city.

Meanwhile, municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Tuesday directed civic officials to identify locations for additional 227 vaccination centres in the city. The above decisions were taken by Chahal in a video conferencing meeting with health department officials and all 24 ward officials in the city.

The 227 additional vaccine centres can be local health posts of the BMC, nursing homes, private hospitals, community/marriage and party halls. All the ward officials are directed to be prepared with the list of such locations in the next two days. Chahal has also directed that these centres should have tie-up with local hospitals nearby where citizens will be rushed in case of any adverse effect, said civic officials.

However, a decision on whether citizens between 18 to 45 years of age will have to pay up for the vaccination or not will be decided by the state government, post a decision on pricing.

The BMC official added, “We have been directed to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU)’s with nursing homes and hospitals nearby the vaccination centres. This means if we have a vaccination centre in our health post or say marriage hall, the MOU will cover the individual who may require hospitalisation post-vaccination. The hospital or nursing home should be located nearby the vaccination, and the individual reporting adverse effect post-vaccination will be rushed there.”

A BMC official who attended the meeting said, “The plan, for now, is to vaccinate 18 to 44 years of age group only at private vaccination centres based on appointments. This arrangement will remain for now to ensure there is no crowding at vaccination centres. In the coming days, we will add 26 private vaccination centres that will take the count to 99.”

Currently, the city has around 136 vaccination centres including 63 run by the civic body and government as 73 by private hospitals. The civic body will add 227 more centres (one centre in each electoral ward) and allow 26 more at private hospitals, which would mean there will be 389 vaccination centres in the city.

The civic body aims to start around 500 vaccination centres in the city.

Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had told HT last week, “We are planning to have nearly 500 centres in the city for vaccination, and the same will be implemented with the help of corporators.”

The BMC has also appealed to housing societies and corporate offices to tie up with private hospitals and get vaccinated in bulk once the stock arrives, BMC said in a statement.

The BMC in its statement added that in the coming days additional 26 hospitals will be added to the list taking the total number of private vaccination centres from 73 to 99. Also, the BMC is going to set up a cold storage facility for the storage of vaccine doses in Andheri that will supply to the western suburbs. Currently, Kanjurmarg cold storage facility can store 12 million vaccine doses. Additionally, there is a storage facility for storing vaccine doses in Dadar for the island city and central Mumbai.

According to BMC officials, it will take a call on whether to float global bids and procure vaccine doses directly from the state government once the state issues guidelines on the same. It is in touch with the two manufacturers namely Serum Institute of India and Bharat Biotech who are currently authorised to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines in India.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday 72,606 citizens were vaccinated of which 2,484 were health care workers, 3,720 were frontline workers, 37,208 were senior citizens above the age of 60 and 291,94 were citizens in the age group of 45 to 59. Overall, since January 16, 2,355,215 citizens have been vaccinated in the city.