The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Thursday (July 8, 2021) said that civic and government-run vaccination centres in Mumbai won’t be administering COVID-19 vaccines on Friday (July 9, 2021) due to a shortage of vaccines. According to the statement by BMC, the vaccination drive at these centres will remain suspended on Friday and will resume only after they receive fresh stock of vaccines. The BMC in a statement mentioned, “Citizens of Mumbai are constantly informed about the vaccination, depending on the availability of vaccine stocks, and an appropriate decision has been taken.”
As per BMC’s report, a total of 58,84,019 citizens have been inoculated in the city till Wednesday, and of these, 12,29,546 beneficiaries had received the second dose as well. While, on Thursday BMC informed that Mumbai reported 540 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total in the maximum city caseload has reached 7,26,824. There are presently 7,714 active cases in Mumbai.
Dr Rajesh Dere, Dean of BKC Jumbo Covid Centre said on Thursday that if Mumbai manages to administer the second dose to 30-40% population, only then the threat of the third Covid wave can be subsided.
“47% population administered with 1st dose. Preparations are being made for a possible third wave. If we manage to administer the 2nd dose to 30-40%, population, COVID threat can be reduced,” Dr Dere said.
After a brief spell when the city was administering around 1 lakh jabs daily, vaccination in Mumbai has been inconsistent over the last couple of weeks. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said the corporation is receiving stock that is enough to last for only two to three days.
“We understand that sometimes people don’t get vaccines because supply exhausts. But instead of stretching our stock over several days, it makes more sense to take more walk-ins and vaccinate more people within two to three days. I have spoken with state government officials. We expect more stock in July as compared to June,” said Kakani.
Meanwhile, the nation’s capital is struggling with shortage of vaccine again. The city has been vaccinating over 1.5 lakh people for the last two weeks almost on a daily basis. The previous week, the city vaccinated over 2 lakh people on a single day.
“Last week, vaccinations were carried out in Delhi in record speed. At present, however, there are no vaccines, and the supply from the Centre is not coming in either. I appeal to the Centre to provide vaccines as per requirement to the people of Delhi,” Deputy CM Manish Sisodia tweeted.
In Delhi, close to 1.5 crore out of 2 crore people are eligible for the vaccines. Of these, 65 lakh or 43% people have already got at least one shot of the vaccine. Around 13% people have got both shots. According to the government’s bulletin, over 80,000 people were vaccinated on Tuesday. Of these, over 43,000 were in the 18-44 age group.
Of close to 20 lakh people who have got both doses of the vaccines, around 13 lakh are above the ages over 45, 1.8 lakh are aged between 18 and 44, while the remaining are healthcare and frontline workers.
