Covid-19 vaccination: First phase in Mumbai may be completed in 1 month – Hindustan Times

With the boost in the overall turnout of healthcare workers (HCW) for vaccination over the past two days, officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said there was a possibility of completing the first phase within a month.

In Mumbai, around 130,000 HCWs have registered for inoculation on the centralised application Co-WIN, of which 70,000 work at private hospitals.

Owing to a technical glitch in the app at the beginning, vaccination centres achieved only 50% of its target. Due to this low turnout, the civic body had estimated that it would take almost two months to inoculate HCWs in the city.

However, with the introduction of a walk-in option, the overall turnout of beneficiaries has now reached 90% at most vaccination centres like King Edward Memorial (KEM), Rajawadi and Kandivli-based Shatabdi hospitals. As HT reported on Sunday, some centres like BKC jumbo centre and Lokmanya Tilak general hospital (also known as Sion hospital) have increased their vaccination centres to 10 from the initial five.

“In the beginning, the turnout was low. Also, we were asked to vaccinate four days a week which wasn’t in the plan earlier. So, we thought it would take two months to complete the first phase. But now, with the rise in the turnout, we are expecting to complete the first phase of the vaccination within a month,” said Suresh Kakani, additional commissioner, BMC.

So far, on a daily basis, the Co-WIN app is regenerating 20-30% names of beneficiaries who were already shortlisted previously for vaccination. BMC officers believe once the glitch is fixed, the turnout will rise further.

“We have already sought permission from the authorities to allow us to increase the vaccination centres. With this approval, we will be able to include more peripheral hospitals,” said Kakani.

According to BMC, of the 19,194 shortlisted beneficiaries, 13,164 were inoculated at 10 vaccination centres in the past five days of the vaccination. This comes as an overall 68.58% turnout.

With the completion of the first phase, BMC will start vaccinating frontline workers from solid waste management and insecticide departments, police personnel and health officers, among others.

“We have their list ready. Once, we are almost done with the first phase, we will open the link for their registration,” said Kakani.