MUMBAI: After a slew of complaints about inconsistency of timings to book online slots for vaccination, the BMC said on Wednesday that announcement of slots would be made at 5.30pm on social media. The timing of vaccination centres has also been fixed from 9am to 5pm, although centres that may want tofunction longer will have the liberty to do so.
The BMC received 1.79lakh Covid vaccine doses on Wednesday. Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said the city received 1.79 lakh Covishield doses, which will help sustain the momentum for a few days. The city on Wednesday vaccinated 57,362 people. So far, 69,66,930 doses have been administered in the city.
"Vaccination through walk-ins continues to be a problem in the city. It has been over six months since vaccination has started, yet serpentine queues are a common sight. While the BMC has often blamed the shortage of doses for the overcrowding and long wait in vaccination centres, efforts must be made to evolve a more efficient system.-TimesView"
Kakani said a special drive will raise coverage in slums. “Special camps will be set up inside slum pockets, where registrations will be done on the spot from next week. The 50% online vaccination and 50% through walk-ins is not possible to implement in slums since not everyone has access to cellphones or internet,” he said.
In Mumbai, nearly 17 lakh people have been fully vaccinated while 36.14 lakh people have got the first dose. The city has an estimated adult population of 93 lakh. Several corporates and NGOs have tied up with private hospitals to vaccinate people living in slums. Jaslok Hospital has tied upwith Citi Bank to vaccinate people living in Dharavi. Godrej Hospital too is planning to start a CSR drive.
The announcement about timings was made given that hundreds continue to queue up outside centres hours before these open. The slot announcements will be made through Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, the BMC said. Mumbaikars said walk-in continues to be a mess as there are limited slots. People are forced to queue up from 5am and 6am as there are limited coupons. Every centre has 100-200 slots, of which doses are reserved for walk-in and online. Slots are further divided between first and second dose recipients.
RN Cooper, Juhu, Babasaheb Ambedkar, Kandivli, Rajawadi, Ghatkopar and BYL Nair, Mumbai Central, have administered over a lakh doses each so far.
