The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has been reeling under an acute shortage of Covaxin for the last two days, as a result of which beneficiaries due for their second dose are being turned away from centres despite having appointments. Only two of the three vaccine centres are administering Covaxin to beneficiaries between 18 and 44 years of age. Civic officials say they are down to the last 1,00,000 doses of vaccines, which is just enough stock for the next two days.
On Monday, 31,043 registered beneficiaries were vaccinated at the 105 covid vaccine centres in Mumbai, of which 4,837 were between 18 and 44 years of age. There were eight beneficiaries who experienced side effects.
According to a BMC report, a total of 1,77,914 people have been administered Covaxin in the city, of whom 1,21,416 have received their first dose and 56,452 have got the second dose as well.
The BMC, through its Twitter handle, put out a list of 105 vaccination centres that would be functional on Monday but only be administering Covishield. It was the same story on the day before.
Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said the BMC had 20,000 Covaxin doses and had accordingly directed vaccine centres to administer Covaxin to only a limited number of beneficiaries. “We only have two days’ worth of vaccine stock and if we don’t get stock by Tuesday or Wednesday, then the vaccination drive will come to a halt,” he said.
Meanwhile, BMC officials said they had floated a tender to procure 60 lakh vaccine doses to overcome the shortage. “We are constantly making efforts to continue the vaccination drive and ensure that more people are vaccinated in Mumbai. Accordingly, a tender has been floated on Monday for procuring 60 lakh vaccine doses,” said a senior health official.
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