Amid scarcity, no Covid-19 vaccination drive today in Mumbai: BMC

Amid the shortage of vaccines the civic body suspended the vaccination drive at civic and governmentrun centres for Thursday With stocks expected to arrive anytime on Thursday the drive would resume on FridayThe development further jeopardised the vaccination of students slated to go abroad While the BMC had planned an ambitious drive for them even small centres in various corporator wards went dry on Wednesday Opposition leaders in the BMC accused it of mismanagement and shoddy planningThe drive was held only in 81 units across the city which have the capacity to vaccinate hardly 8000 people According to civic data 4178 beneficiaries were inoculated at civic centres around 1332 were vaccinated at staterun centres and 711 students headed abroad were vaccinated The BMC had reserved 900 doses for them across three centresAlso Read Covid19 Mumbairsquos new cases stay below 1000 deaths at 31ldquoThe vaccination drive will not be conducted on Thursday at government and municipal centres due to insufficient supply of vaccines Vaccination will be resumed from the next day if vaccine stocks become available A humble appeal is being made to the citizens of Mumbai to cooperate with the BMC administrationrdquo stated a press statement issued by the BMClsquoDoses diverted for studentsrsquoBJP MLA from Andheri Ameet Satam claimed that doses meant for small centres in Andheri were transferred to major hospitals to meet the studentsrsquo needs However civic sources said that there is an overall shortage of doses and that they are not able to accommodate all students coming in for the vaccineMany people had to return emptyhanded on Wednesday as centres were closed amid the shortage especially in Andheri Wednesdayrsquos numbers too show a drop in the inoculation of those aged 4559 years as compared to Monday and TuesdaySatam said ldquoWhen the BMC did not have enough stock for special drives why did it organise them The 45 population is running from one centre to another to get their dose we are getting calls about centres being shut The doses that were given to various centres are being transferred to just one hospital where the students are being inoculated And even that is not properly happening as the students are sent back owing to the shortagerdquoCongress leader Mohsin Haider said ldquoBMC centres have been shut for almost two days On enquiry they are saying that there is a shortage and that they were not allotted doses But at the same time private hospitals are giving doses and charging for them If there is stock available with private players it means vaccines are being manufactured but not being given to the government This needs to be probedrdquoHowever a civic official said ldquoAll these allegations are rubbish We are low on doses thus many small centres were shut We have also limited our stock for students to 300 doses at each of the three hospitals ndash Kasturba Rajawadi and Cooperrdquo39k inoculated in 1844 groupMeanwhile On Wednesday 49833 beneficiaries were inoculated at civic government and private centres Over 44000 inoculations were done in private centres There were two cases of adverse effects The city has so far inoculated a total of 3374261 beneficiaries out of which 754955 have been administered both doses There were 39530 beneficiaries in the age group of 1844 years along with 101 lactating mothers The turnout of senior citizens was 3071 while of those aged 4559 was 5559 The number of healthcare workers inoculated was 434 and that of the frontline workers was 42781No of units across the city with a combined capacity of 8000 where the vaccination drive was conducted on Wednesday300Maximum daily vaccines to be given to students at Cooper Rajawadi and Kasturba hospitals