COVID-19 in Mumbai: Frontline workers push city's vaccination tally up

A police officer receiving the Oxford-AstraZeneca’s Covishield vaccine at Nair Hospital on Saturday. Pic/Ashish Raje

Frontline workers, mostly employees with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, are pushing the vaccination tally upwards. On Saturday, 11,000 took the first dose, out of which 9,500 were frontline workers. Meanwhile, around one lakh health workers have received the jab so far.

Around 1.6 lakh healthcare workers and 1.9 lakh frontline workers are registered for the COVID-19 vaccination drive. Around one lakh BMC employees are registered as frontline workers. On Saturday, the corporation set a target of 10,500 doses for the day and exceeded it with 13,914 jabs, of which 2,640 were healthcare workers, receiving the second dose.

The city has 29 centres with a capacity of vaccinating 10,300 people per day. But, aside from two days, daily targets have not been achieved. Saturday counts as the third such day. While the corporation expected around 7,500 frontline workers for the first dose, 9,470 turned up to take a jab. Only 2,640 health workers have got the second dose of the vaccine on Saturday taking the tally to 5,059, far below the number in the first week after starting the vaccination in January. A BMC official stated that the beneficiaries who visited vaccination centres for the second dose could not be vaccinated due to an issue with the CoWin portal.

Four private hospitals have already started COVID-19 centres, giving vaccines to more than 600 health workers. Two more private hospitals, Nanavati and Fortis (Mulund), will be starting centres from Monday.