Vaccination drive at 300 centres to resume from Monday in Mumbai

After a gap of three days, Covid vaccination will resume at over 300 civic and state government-run centres from Monday. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Saturday received over 85,000 doses of Covidshield and around 8,000 doses of Covaxin. The BMC has also written to pharmaceutical company Zydus Cadila for conducting its vaccine trials on 50 children between the age group of 12 to 18 years.

The vaccination drive at over 300 centres was suspended since Friday owing to a shortage of doses. Earlier, the drive was suspended on July 1 due to the same reason. However, the drive will resume from Monday. According to BMC officials, the stock that it has received will last for around two days. There are a total of 401 vaccination centres in the city, of which, 98 are private vaccination centres where the drive is being conducted without any disruption.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said, “We have got a fresh stock of around 85,000 Covishield and 8,000 Covaxin doses. This will last for around two days and further Wednesday onwards; the drive will be dependent on the stock we get. However, we have been informed that we will get a good number of doses in the coming days.”

Kakani added, “We have also written to Zydus to provide us with their vaccine to conduct a trial on 50 children between the age of 12 and 18 years. We have intimated and are awaiting their reply on the same.” Earlier, the BMC had also written to the Central government showing its interest to conduct trials of Covaxin on children between the age group of 12 and 18 years. However, there was no further communication on the same from the Centre.

Further, from Monday onwards, vaccination will be undertaken in the same formula wherein 50% slots will be reserved for walk-ins and the rest will be via online booking.

On Saturday, 48,393 citizens were vaccinated at private hospitals. Overall, six million citizens have been vaccinated in the city since January 16. As of Saturday, 6,009,025 citizens have been vaccinated in the city with at least one dose. A total of 1,273,484 citizens are fully vaccinated with both doses in the city.