COVID-19 vaccination halts in Mumbai's BKC centre, 75 other sites due to shortage

A large number of coronavirus vaccination centres across Mumbai suspended the inoculation drive on Friday due to  shortage of vaccines. People, who came to take the COVID-19 jab on Friday, waited outside the vaccination facilities, including Mumbai's Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) jumbo vaccination centre after the vaccines ran out of stock.

Rajesh Dere, Dean, BKC Jumbo vaccination centre informed media that he was expecting more supply of vaccines, but it didn't happen. Dere said only 160 doses are left in the city's jumbo vaccination facility. "From day 1 we used to get vaccines before a day as buffer stock, till yesterday we got a sufficient number of vials for this centre. Last night we were expecting to get today's dose, but it has not come. Now we have only 160 doses," Dere told ANI news agency.

According to a PTI report, as many as 75 of the 120 centres, mainly at private hospitals, suspended vaccination on Friday morning due to unavailability of doses, while some other centres suspended the drive within a few hours after the stock got over.

Yesterday, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) claimed it suspended vaccination at 25 centres in private hospitals due to shortage of doses. A vaccination centre in Mahim, Fortis hospital in Mulund and Vashi Jumbo vaccination Center at ESIS hospital have also been temporarily shut.

Amid the reports of shortage of vaccines, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar said she was informed that about 76,000 to 1 lakh doses are about to reach Mumbai, but Pednekar does not have any official information on that. Pednekar added, "PM is serious and proactive about our issues but it seems that the people under PM are not taking this issue with the same seriousness". Her statement has come amid the ongoing exchange of barbs between the Centre and Maharashtra.

Two days back, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope asked the Centre why the state was getting fewer COVID-19 vaccine doses as compared to some other states, including Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. Thereafter, several BJP ministers rallied against Tope's claims and slammed the state for wastage.

Additionally, the union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan dismissed Tope's claim and also said the allegations of vaccine shortage are utterly baseless. Dr Vardhan said Maharashtra need to improve the implementation of its testing, containment strategies and vaccination drive.

Moreover, Prime Minister Narendra Modi also urged the Maharashtra government to focus more on testing. The prime minister in a video conference with chief ministers of all states, including CM Uddhav Thackeray said, "Don't be under any kind of pressure that your performance is bad because your numbers are high. You just focus on testing; I'm telling you even now. There is no reason to think you are doing badly if your numbers are high...There will be more positive cases if you do more testing".

According to BMC data, Mumbai reported 8,938 new COVID-19 cases and 23 fresh deaths on Thursday. As many as 48,902 more COVID-19 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours, taking the number of samples examined so far to 44,54,140, the civic body said. Mumbai's number of active COVID-19 cases rose to 86,279. The overall infection growth rate has increased to 2.03 per cent, while the case doubling rate has dropped to 33 days in the city.

Also read: Maharashtra leads in COVID-19 vaccination, shows Centre's data

Also read: Maharashtra closes 109 centres, Odisha 700 due to vaccine 'shortage'