Day 1 of the third phase of the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group turned out to be a damp squib in Mumbai, with just a handful of people managing to get appointments for Saturday, and that too because they’d been awake post-midnight when bookings were briefly open.

While CM Uddhav Thackeray had on Friday highlighted the severe vaccine shortage in the state and requested youngsters to wait for their turn, the BMC and its social media team made a surprise midnight announcement about five vaccination centres that were open for bookings. Each centre was allotted 200 registrations. Those who read it first managed to immediately book a centre, and get their first dose on Saturday.