City set to complete giving 10mn doses
MUMBAI: Nine months after Covid vaccination kicked off in the city on January 16, Mumbai will have administered 10 million doses next week. At the current pace, the target population in the 18-45 age group in Mumbai may get fully vaccinated by December or January. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) officials said there cannot be any set date, as it depends on the supply.
The vaccination started with health care workers, followed by frontline workers and senior citizens. Those above the age of 45 were vaccinated from March, while the drive for everyone above the age of 18 was rolled out in May. Mumbai witnessed a lot of ups and downs, with the vaccination drive getting suspended at public centres for over two dozen times due to unavailability of stock.
According to the data, the BMC received 5,837,330 vaccine doses of both Covishield and Covaxin since January. A total of 9,305,662 vaccine doses – 8,535,275 doses of Covishield, 740,621 of Covaxin and 29,766 of Russia’s Sputnik – have been administered. A total of 2,489,854 citizens are fully vaccinated as of August 30.
Of the total 9,305,662 doses, 4,082,682 have been administered at private hospitals, 496,793 state centres and the remaining 4,726,187 at civic-run vaccination centres. The BMC got the highest (996,860) vaccine doses in August, 983,390 doses in July and 739,190 in June. In May, the BMC got 523,440 vaccine doses, 947,500 in April, 810,950 in March, 571,000 in February and 265,000 in January 2021.
In its budget for the ongoing fiscal, the BMC had said that eventually it will ultimately vaccinate 10 million citizens. This would mean that the BMC will have to administer 20 million doses to fully vaccinate 10 million citizens. As per Census 2021, the city’s population is 12.1 million.
Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said, “There is no fixed date as to when our vaccination drive will be completed. It all depends on the supply. However, currently over nine million vaccine doses are administered. Of this, we are assuming that around 20% are outsiders and the remaining 80% reside in Mumbai. The 20% also matter because if a person working in Mumbai but staying in nearby cities gets vaccinated in Mumbai, that makes the environment of our city safe. So, it is also important that the floating population of the city has access to the vaccine.”
Dr Shashank Joshi, member of Maharashtra’s Covid-19 task force, said, “Be it Mumbai, Maharashtra or India, we are one of the fastest and rapidly vaccinating countries. I feel in the next two months, the situation will change and it will be better in terms of vaccination.”
September is expected to have the highest supply, considering the maximum number of citizens in the 18-45 age group, who took the first dose in June, will now be eligible for their second dose.
Of the total, first dose has been given to 4,027,701 in the 18-45 age group, 2,701,471 in the 45-59 age group, 1,799,061 aged 60 years and above and 735,463 health care and front-line workers. In the past one month, 3,146 bedridden citizens also have been administered vaccine doses.
The BMC has also created separate categories for lactating mothers, physically and mentally challenged, pregnant women and those going abroad for work or study for vaccination.