COVID-19 crisis: 35 vaccination centres shut in Mumbai until further notice

On Tuesday morning, several small and private Covid-19 vaccination centres in Mumbai have been shut. According to the details shared by the BMC spokesperson, the vaccination centres have been shut because of the unavailability of the Covid-19 vaccine, which includes Covishield and Covaxin.“As of now, 35 centres have been shut. They were shut on Tuesday, the services will resume only when we can stock up the vaccine,” said Tanaji Kamble, public relations officer for BMC.

The development comes a day after the central government announced that vaccination will be available for all above the age of 18 from May 1. Earlier, the immunisation drive was being conducted for citizens above the age of 45 years. However, while there has been clarity from the civic body, private hospitals did not give clarity as to why they had kept their services shut. There are around 90 Covid-19 vaccination centres in Mumbai, most of which were shut around 10 days back as well.

According to a BMC circular dated April 9, vaccination was being conducted only at government hospitals because Maharashtra and many other states had faced a shortage of Covid 19 vaccines. There are around 71 private hospitals in Mumbai.
Members from a Byculla based hospital said that the vaccination drive was suspended by them because the BMC was trying to stock up on oxygen and vials ahead of the May 1 vaccination drive, because the youth consists of around 70% of vaccine takers.
On the other hand, a source from a Mulund based hospital confirmed that they had stopped giving vaccines because they did not have enough stock.“We do not have stock, which is why we are not providing vaccines today. We do not know what will happen tomorrow. But, there are many private and small institutes, who have run out of vaccine. I am not sure of the jumbo centres, some of them have the vaccine, but in limited quantity, which is not enough to share it with others. We have a capacity of vaccinating around 500-600 people on a daily basis, but right now we cannot really function. Our average is around 400 patients a day,” said the source.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra witnessed a dip in its daily COVID-19 count on Monday, when it reported 58,924 fresh infections; this was a day after reporting the highest number of 68,631 cases on Sunday. However, 351 people lost their lives to the deadly virus on Monday. The overall case tally in Maharashtra now stands at 38,98,262 while the death toll is 60,824. Maharashtra currently 6,76,520 active cases and a recovery rate of 81.04%.

(Credits-PTI)