Mumbai civic body schools, gymkhanas to be Covid-19 vaccination points

BMC plans to immunise one crore of the city’s population in the first phase of the immunisation drive

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) plans to include civic-run schools and gymkhanas as Covid-19 vaccination points to provide faster and better accessibility to immunisation for citizens.

In Mumbai, around 1.25 lakh public and private medical staffers will be provided the first dosage of the vaccine. (Reuters file)

Expecting the roll-out of the vaccine next year, BMC plans to immunise one crore of the city’s population in the first phase of the immunisation drive. Around 400 schools and gymkhanas under the civic body will be roped in along with medical colleges, peripheral hospitals and dispensaries for the purpose.

“First, we will start vaccination centres at tertiary and secondary care centres. But we will also keep ready schools and gymkhanas under BMC ready if we need more centres,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC, adding, “We are already using schools and gymkhanas as Covid care centres (CCC), and therefore there won’t be a problem in converting them into vaccination centres.”

Based on the directives of the Union health ministry, the civic body has started preparing the blueprint for the vaccine distribution. BMC has been holding regular meetings with senior health officers, including deans of medical colleges over the vaccination drive.

In Mumbai, around 1.25 lakh public and private medical staffers will be provided the first dosage of the vaccine. BMC has already registered their phone and email IDs. Once it receive the vials, each beneficiary will be informed on SMS about the nearby location and time of the vaccination. Once removed from the cold storage, a vial can sustain for around 10 hours.

“For now, we’ll provide training to workers from the department of immunisation. They will train those whom we’ll recruit for the mass immunisation process,” said a the health department official.

Meanwhile, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has cautioned against the hype about vaccines which are undergoing clinical trials. “The safety of the vaccine has to be tested widely with a large number of volunteers across the globe in different categories such as age groups, gender, race, continents and climate conditions. Any vaccine which is not tested fully with such third-stage clinical trials is not safe,” read the statement issued by Dr Avinash Bhondwe, president, IMA Maharashtra.