E-Paper
12,000 people to be vaccinated in Mumbai daily, centres to rise from 8 to 50
BMC plan has 4 major hospitals vaccinating 2K people each daily; civic body looks to finish immunisation phase 1 in 12-15 days
In an attempt to increase its capacity for the vaccination process, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has set a target of immunising 12,000 beneficiaries daily at all the vaccination centres.
Currently, BMC has allotted eight centres for vaccination, but it has plans to gradually increase them to 50-100. On Saturday, the civic body announced that the vaccination process will start in Mumbai within 24 hours of the availability of the vaccine stock.
As per BMC’s plan, of the eight centres, four major civic hospitals – King Edward Memorial (KEM), BYL Nair, Cooper and Sion – have been equipped to vaccinate 2,000 people on a daily basis. The remaining four centres – Bhabha hospital (Bandra), VN Desai Hospital (Santacruz), Rajawadi Hospital (Ghatkopar) and Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital (Kandivli) will vaccinate 1,000 people every day.
With a target of vaccinating 12, 000 people every day, BMC plans to complete the first phase of vaccination in 12-15 days.
Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani, who visited all the cold storage facilities and the eight vaccination centres to take a review of the preparations on Saturday, said, “We have started the eight centres on a standby mode. Each administrative ward will have at least two vaccination centres. At first, we can increase the total number of centres to 50. However, we have also identified some school buildings and public structures that will help us to almost double the centres in the future, as we reach to other phases of vaccination. I have directed the staff today to leave no stone unturned in the preparations for our vaccination plan.”
During the first phase of vaccination, around 1.25 lakh healthcare workers are expected to be immunised, while in the second phase, frontline workers such as police personnel and conservancy workers, will be vaccinated. In the third phase, around 50 lakh citizens will be vaccinated, of whom 30 lakh people are above 50 years of age identified in the ‘My Family My Responsibility’ survey. Citizens with comorbidities will also be vaccinated in the third phase of the vaccination drive.
BMC has identified an area of 5,000 square feet on the first floor of its five-storey building at Kanjurmarg as the centralised spot for storing the vaccine. The facility will have two walk-in coolers (WIC) and one walk-in freezer (WIF). Each of WICs will have a capacity of 40 cubic metres and will maintain temperature upto -80 degree Celsius, while the WIF will have a capacity of 20 cubic metres and maintain temperature between -15 and -250 degree Celsius.
Seventeen ice-lined refrigerators (ILR), each with a capacity of 225 litres, will be supplied by the state government. Eight of the refrigerators have been delivered to each of the identified vaccination centres.
