Mumbai restarts vaccination drive, 1,597 get their shots

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday vaccinated 1,597 health workers, of the 3,200 shortlisted to turn up for the Covid-19 inoculation drive’s restart after it was put on hold owing to “technical glitches” following the first day on Saturday.

Mumbai resumed its drive across 40 booths at nine civic body-run vaccination centres and the state-run JJ hospital at 9am. Three of the 1,597 vaccinated reported giddiness following their shots, termed adverse event following immunization (AEFI), and were kept under observation for 30 minutes. None of these beneficiaries had to be hospitalised, said BMC.

Mangala Gomare, BMC executive health officer, said, “Vaccination restarted in Mumbai on Tuesday morning at all 10 centres. We saw a 50% turnout of beneficiaries, as was noticed on day one as well. The drive will continue on Wednesday as well, between 9am and 5pm.”

After the nation-wide drive was inaugurated on January 16, vaccination was halted on Sunday and Monday, due to technical glitches in the CoWin app — the automated system launched by the Central government to systematically administer vaccine shots across the country.

While BMC intended to go ahead with its drive on Sunday, the state government informed the civic body on Saturday night to halt the drive. On day one, BMC vaccinated 1,926 health workers, from among 125,000 workers registered by the civic body for the first phase.

The ten vaccination centres in Mumbai are: The four major hospitals — KEM Hospital where 307 people were vaccinated on Tuesday, BYL Nair Hospital where 165 people were vaccinated, Cooper Hospital where 229 people were vaccinated, and Sion Hospital where 110 people were vaccinated; four peripheral hospitals — Bhabha Hospital in Bandra where 90 people were vaccinated, VN Desai Hospital in Santacruz where 59 people were vaccinated, Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar where 285 people were vaccinated, and Bharat Ratna Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital in Kandivli where 236 people were vaccinated on Tuesday; the Covid-19 facility at Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) where 103 people were vaccinated, and the JJ hospital where 13 people were vaccinated.

On Wednesday last week, Mumbai received 139,500 vaccine vials from Serum Institute of India (SII). These are being stored at a cold storage facility in Patel’s F-South ward office building, which also has the headquarters of the public health department. From here, BMC transported doses to all centres on Thursday last week, sufficient to last an entire week.