From Friday, the citizens of Mumbai will not be able to walk-in 'co-vaccine-19 vaccination facility

Mumbai: From Friday, the citizens of Mumbai will not be able to walk-in 'co-vaccine-19 vaccination facility.  The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to discontinue the option following anarchy outside a few immunization centers on Wednesday.  The move comes against the backdrop of disturbing scenes witnessed outside the Center across Mumbai on Tuesday and Wednesday.

BMC has made it mandatory for every person who wants to be vaccinated to get an appointment on the Co-Win portal. However, citizens over the age of 45 will be exempted from the second dose of Covaxin if the temporary certificate of the first dose is presented in soft or hard copy form.  Health workers and other leading workers will be excluded. There was a rush outside some vaccination centers on Wednesday afternoon. 

Officials at the BKC Jumbo Facility, which began gathering people from 8 a.m., avoided a stampede-like situation and saw some breaking the barricade. “The Covin-19 vaccination center is overcrowded, making it difficult to maintain social distance and the appropriate behaviour for Covin. 

Therefore, it is suggested that all citizens wishing to be vaccinated against covid-19 should register in advance on the covin portal and book an appointment slot at the vaccination center of their choice on the same portal before heading to the vaccination center.  In a circular issued yesterday, the Municipal Commissioner of IS Chahal following said he saw heavy police deployment outside two large vaccination centers - yesterday and Nesco - on Thursday.

Due to the shortage of supplies, many centers have allowed only those who need a second dose to walk to the vaccination center.  BKC, which has the capacity to vaccinate 8,000 citizens, stopped driving for people over the age of 45 in the afternoon. The stock closed at 2pm at the Nesco Jumbo Center, which has the capacity to vaccinate 6,000 people per day.  The center, which normally operates in two shifts, operates in only one shift.  The dean of the center said that they do not give people the first dose of the vaccine because of the limited covaxin stock left.  Blue Andrade said.  No charge was left at JJ Hospital on Thursday.  Lalit Sange said. 

At RN Cooper Hospital, Dean Dr.  Pinnacle Gujjar is given limited doses and vaccinations are scheduled on limited days of the week.  Long queues were seen on Thursday outside Dahisar, Nesco Jumbo Facility, Rajwadi and KEM Hospital.  Due to a technical glitch, the new vaccination center at Dharavi Transit Camp could not be activated.  BMC, which has been trying to improve daily vaccination numbers, has been facing inadequate stock since last month, when the vaccination center was closed for weeks.  

Although the Civil Body plans to increase the number of vaccination centers in private hospitals to 100 within the next two days, all but 75 existing private centers will be closed from April 28 due to unavailability of vaccine doses. There are 153 vaccination centers in the city.  The number of people who received the first dose was 19.99 lakh and the second dose was 5.8 lakh, with 60,153 people being vaccinated on Thursday. 

Meanwhile, vaccinations for citizens between the ages of 18 and 44 continued Thursday.  So far, the city has vaccinated 13,303 citizens of all ages.  BMC has added three more vaccination centers to meet the age limit - the Masheib Meenatai Maternity Home in Chunabhatti, the PWD Community Hall in Bandra (East), and the World Tower MCGM parking in Lower Parel. On May 1, BMC opened five centers for the 18-44 group to be vaccinated.