Only citizens who have received slot should arrive at vaccination centre: Mumbai civic body

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday appealed to all citizens against crowding at vaccination centres if they have not received an appointment after registering on the CoWIN application, the previous day

Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Friday appealed to all citizens against crowding at vaccination centres if they have not received an appointment after registering on the CoWIN application, the previous day.

HT Image

In a statement, BMC said, “The crowding is making it difficult to take the necessary precautions and maintain social distancing. Only those citizens who have been registered and have received a slot should arrive at the vaccination centre during the allotted timing.”

Authorities said that there is a systematic way in which a particular number of slots are allotted to respective vaccine centres.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner incharge of BMC’s public health department said, ‘’We decide how many vaccine doses each centre should receive based on the average turn out of the past week. Usually, each vaccine centre receives stock to suffice three-four days to a maximum of one week’’.

Now that BMC has made it mandatory for citizens of all age groups to take an appointment for vaccination and has disallowed walk-ins. Kakani said, “When citizens register on the Co-WIN application, they are allotted a time to visit the vaccine centres based on the availability of the slot. Vaccine centres are allotted between one and 10 slots per day, depending on the available stock at the centre. A maximum of 100 beneficiaries can be vaccinated in every slot.”

At the end of each day, vaccine centres submit data to BMC of the number of vaccine shots utilised during the day, which helps the civic body keep track of the availability of stock at the centre.

When stocks run out, BMC informs the state government to place an order for more vaccine shots. BMC then collects the stock allotted to the civic body by the state government, from the state’s storage facility in Pune. This is then brought to BMC’s main storage facility at Kanjurmarg and the public health department’s head office at F/South ward in Parel, and delivered to vaccine centres the next morning, before the vaccination drive for the day begins.

Among stocks available at vaccine centres approximately 1% doses are wasted. Kakani said, “Mumbai has one of the lowest percentage of wastage of vaccine doses, at 1%. Wastage usually happens because every vial accommodates 10 vaccine shots. If a vial is opened at the end of the day, but only nine beneficiaries are left to get vaccinated, one dose goes waste, for example.”

On an average, BMC vaccinates 35,000 to 40,000 beneficiaries per day. On Friday, 41,107 beneficiaries were vaccinated in Mumbai, of which 16,310 received their first dose, and 24,797 received their second dose. 3,613 beneficiaries in the age group of 18-44 years were vaccinated on Friday.

Presently, BMC has less than 100,000 vaccine shots left in its stock, and more are expected to arrive on Saturday or Sunday night.

After suspending walk-in vaccination for all age groups on Thursday, Municipal commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal on Friday directed the administration to allow walk-ins for beneficiaries in the 45 years and above age group, only if they are receiving their second dose. This will happen after the immunization manager at each centre verifies vaccine certificates received by these beneficiaries after the first dose.