Covid-19: 50,000 people to be vaccinated every day in Mumbai; 75 vaccine centres identified

A day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved two Covid-19 vaccines, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declared that they have

A day after the Drugs Controller General of India (DCGI) approved two Covid-19 vaccines, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has declared that they have upgraded their infrastructure which will now enable them to vaccinate 50,000 beneficiaries every day, in Mumbai. For this, 75 vaccination centres have also been identified.

Healthcare workers collect swab samples of residents at Goregaon. (Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo)

Expecting a roll-out of the vaccines by the second week of January, the BMC has converted a few more peripheral, maternity hospitals and primary health centres into vaccination centres. This has increased their total vaccination points to 75, which was only eight last week. With this, the BMC will be able to finish vaccinating the 1.25 lakh healthcare workers within just three days.

“We are trying to increase the infrastructure as much as possible. We have identified 75 vaccination points. If needed, we can extend it further. This will enable us to vaccinate almost 50,000 beneficiaries every day,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

Many doctors have raised the concern of waiting in long queues to get vaccinated which would affect their practice and patients have to suffer. Taking note of this, BMC is expanding the centres, so that healthcare workers don’t have to wait longer in lines.

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, which are identified through ‘My Family My Responsibility’ survey.

The civic body is in the process of uploading the details of these citizens on the Co-WIN application, the centralised mobile application for registration of vaccination.