Even as city faces severe vaccine crunch, BMC puts out post-midnight tweet, saying five centres open for 18-44 age group; only a handful of people manage to book an appointment
Around 200 people, between the ages 18 and 44, queued up at the BKC vaccination centre, as the third phase of the vaccine drive began on Saturday. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
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.
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Bijal Makwana, 39, Lokhandwala resident
Bijal Makwana, 39, a chef by profession and resident of Lokhandwala was one of the lucky few. “I just happened to be awake, and saw the notification from the BMC’s official handle on Twitter. While the CoWIN wasn’t showing any slots, Aarogya Setu showed a few slots for the BKC vaccination centre. The other four centres were full. I booked immediately,” said Makwana. A minute later, when she tried to book for her brother, all slots were booked.
At 12.16 am, the BMC via its Twitter handle shared that it had received a limited vaccine stock and that the first dose of vaccination for the 18-44 age group would be conducted between 1 pm and 6 pm.
Akshat Thakkar, 20, student and resident of Khar, said, “When I saw the tweet, I decided to try and get a booking done. While my mother got an appointment at the vaccination centre in Seven Hills Hospital, I got the appointment at BKC.”
The BMC on Friday, while announcing that it was rolling out vaccines for the 18-44 age group, had said that no walk-ins would be entertained. Prior registration and appointments have been made compulsory for this age group.
Ishita Khankar, 23, who registered on the CoWIN app, but missed seeing the tweet, failed to get the jab, as she didn’t have a prior appointment. “I travelled all the way from Goregaon to BKC, and was at the centre by 9 am, but had to return home,” she said.
When contacted, Suresh Kakani, BMC additional municipal commissioner, said that the announced was made late, due to delay in procuring the vaccines. “We couldn’t open registrations, without getting the vaccines,” he said.
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