Fifty two vaccination centres shut in Mumbai due to shortage of vaccines

The civic body is expecting 50,000 doses of Covishield, developed by Pune’s Serum Institute of India in collaboration with British pharmaceutical major AstraZeneca, to come in by late Friday night. The civic official said, “We are receiving doses in different batch size from anything between 16,000 and 50,000, which makes it difficult to slot the vaccines to the centres.”

“Since vaccine supply is expected tonight (Friday), there will be a delay in starting the vaccination drive tomorrow (Saturday),” said BMC. Till late Friday night, BMC had not released the list of vaccination centres which will be functioning on Saturday.

Officials said there is no clarity on the supply of Covaxin, developed by Indian company Bharat Biotech, and several slated for a second dose are being turned away. Currently, the BMC is providing stock to only government centres while private centres will be given more doses as fresh supply comes in, said a civic official.

Since Monday, the temporary closure of private vaccination centres has led to crowding at the civic-run facilities in the city. On Thursday, citizens had to wait for up to three hours at the BKC and Dahisar jumbo facilities. BKC facility, which has the highest vaccination turnout, had suspended vaccination on Friday.