Covid-19: Crowding causes chaos at Dahisar, BKC vaccination centres in Mumbai

Two vaccination centres in the city one each at BKC and Dahisar were faced with a jumbo crowd on Wednesday Besides the beneficiaries who had registered online thousands had just walked in to get inoculated against the novel Coronavirus Physical distancing went for a toss as people stood close to each other which many visitors said could become the cause for further spread of the virusPeople who visited the Dahisar Jumbo Centre were even more disappointed as most of them had waited in long queues since 8 am to get tokens but the vaccination started only at 12 pm midday saw long queues outside both the Dahisar and BKC vaccination centres As vaccination centres in Dahisar were closed since Friday due to nonavailability of doses people who heard about the reopening rushed to the jumbo centre here early morning Among the beneficiaries were those aged 45 and above who had come for their second dose of vaccineThe Dahisar vaccination centre officials issued 3000 tokens but only 2000 beneficiaries had registered online for Wednesdayrsquos appointment the 1000 others were walkins Many of them had travelled from Kandivli and Malad without registration after hearing about the reopening of the vaccination centreMany beneficiaries returned home without taking the shot Those who could not be vaccinated on Wednesday were told to return on Thursday at 7 am for the token which will be distributed two hours later from 9 amKandivli resident Rajesh Gohil 66 said ldquoHelpline number was not available so I visited this centre alone But I learnt that tokens were already distributed in the morning Now I have to come tomorrow Thursday at 7 am and stand in line for two hours for the token distribution to start I donrsquot know if after all that whether I will get a token tomorrowrdquoOmprakash who took her mother to the centre said ldquoI donrsquot understand how my mother will get the vaccine She is 73yearold People come here to get protection from Covid19 but the lack of physical distancing puts us at risk of contracting the virusrdquoBipin Desai a 72yearold Dahisar resident said ldquoI have been waiting for the second dose for the past many days I visited Dahisar centre but it was closed for the past 45 days and the helpline number was also not availablerdquo Dahisar resident Jyoti Soni said I was so happy to hear that vaccine centres have reopened But when I reached Dahisar centre I saw a huge crowd and no one was maintaining a safe physical distance Scared of contracting the virus I returned homerdquoPeople who visited the BKC Jumbo Covid19 Centre criticised the administration for the unmanageable crowd Civic officials said the crowd was unexpected as many people had gathered for their vaccine without an appointmentDr Urvi Parekh who had taken her elderly parents to BKC on Wednesday tweeted that the BKC vaccination centre had a common queue for beneficiaries of both first and second doses of all age groups She said it took her parents three hours to get vaccinatedAnother citizen Paru Shah tweeted ldquoBKC is totally chaotic Social distancing has gone down the drain Whatrsquos the point if vaccine centres become potential hubs of infection due to mismanagement of crowds Such a big facility but poorly managedrdquoldquoYesterday I managed to book an appointment for the first dose of vaccine at BKC centre at 13 pm However after reaching there well before time we were told that there is no stock of the vaccinerdquo Gaurav Shah an engineer tweetedBMC spokesperson blamed the people and said there was no mismanagement at the BKC centre ldquoCitizens were requested to come after 12 pm as doses were to come in the morning Local administration and police also appealed to the citizens However people started crowding the centre in the morning itself However once doses arrived everything was well managed and vaccination was carried out smoothlyrdquo