Nine jumbo centres ready to jab teens

15 to 18 yr-olds to receive first Covid dose on Monday; active cases cross 22k mark over weekend

Pratip Acharya and Mehul R Thakkar

MUMBAI : To inoculate the most number of teenagers between the age of 15-18 years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to set up dedicated vaccination centres in nine of its jumbo centres in Mumbai.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on December 26 that teenagers in the age group of 15 to 18 years will receive their Covid shots starting January 3.

The BMC said that it has set up dedicated vaccination centres in nine jumbo Covid centres of Mumbai, including the Richardson and Crudas at Byculla, the NESCO jumbo centre, the NSCI at Worli, the BKC jumbo centre and the jumbo centres at Kanjurmarg, Malad, Mulund and Dahisar.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner and in charge of public health in the BMC, said that each of these centres will have at least three booths that will exclusively inoculate teenage beneficiaries.

“For the first one week, we have set up a target of inoculating 2,500 teenage beneficiaries in Mumbai per day. These jumbo centres have been activated exclusively for the specified age gap,” said Kakani. He mentioned that besides advance online registration, walk-in facilities will also be available for the teenagers at the jumbo centres.

“Besides this, all the local ward offices will connect with the administration of the municipal schools present in their ward so that the eligible students could be taken to the nearest jumbo centre for inoculation,” Kakani said.

“In the first one week, we are only going ahead with these nine jumbo centres for children. After seeing the response, we will start more facilities. We are also talking with colleges and universities so that facilities could be started at their campuses thereafter,” he said. Dr Mangla Gomare, executive health officer in the BMC, said that at present, only Covaxin will be administered.