E-Paper
Mumbai private Covid-19 vaccine centres shut till April 12, BMC apologises for inconvenince
On Friday night, the civic body issued a notification and said owing to the shortage of vaccine doses, private centres will remain shut till Monday, but all centres will be running soon, once new stock is received.
All private Covid-19 vaccination centres in the jurisdiction of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will remain shut till April 12, the civic body notified on Friday, amid the ongoing debate over vaccine shortage in Maharashtra and several other states.
Government and municipal hospitals, however, will continue with the drive, the civic body said, though the timing has been modified because of the weekend lockdown. The civic authority notified that people will be allowed to travel for getting vaccinated. On Saturday, vaccination will be done between 12pm and 6pm. On Sunday, the timing will be between 9am and 5pm.
"Dear Mumbaikars. Some of the vaccination-centres are short of vaccines due to non-receipt of stocks from Govt of India but all centres should be up and vaccinating soon. We regret the inconvenience and we shall keep you updated," the civic body said.
51 vaccination centres remain closed in Mumbai today
While the Centre has reiterated that there is no shortage of vaccine anywhere in the country as the stock is being centrally monitored, several states including Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, have written to the Centre asking for more doses. Some of the doses are on transit. Though it is an ongoing process and vaccine stock is believed to have run out faster than previous times because of the increased number of vaccinations per day, according to the heads of the vaccination centres, they always received advanced stock before the existing stock runs out. This is for the first time that the drive had to be stopped owing to a shortage.
Some 90 vaccination centres, including 71 in private facilities, had to be shut on Friday due to shortage of vaccine doses.
On Wednesday, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope raised the issue of vaccine shortage in the state, which ensued as state versus Centre debate as Union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan said states are blaming the Centre to cover up their failure in managing the pandemic.
