Mumbai: Stock shortage pulls down vaccination figures to 64,000

A beneficiary is administered Covishield at Swaminarayan temple in Mahalaxmi. Pic/Ashish Raje

After clocking over 1 lakh shots for three consecutive days, stock shortage pulled down the city's inoculation figures to 64,378 on Thursday, with civic-run centres immunising only 27,090 people. The BMC received more than 2 lakh doses on Thursday night and officials said jabs will be administered between 2 pm and 5 pm on Friday.

After the BMC-managed centres started free vaccination for the age group of 30 to 44 years from Monday, there was a surge in the number of beneficiaries lining up for vaccines. This resulted in numbers staying above 1 lakh till Wednesday.

However, an inadequate supply of doses on Thursday meant civic centres could administer a little more than 35 per cent of the over 75,000 shots that they had given
the previous day.

"We have received over 2 lakh of vaccines. Since it's already late, it will take some time for transportation, so the sessions will be conducted between 2 pm and 5 pm on Friday at civic centres," said Mangala Gomare, executive health officer of the BMC.

Of the vaccines administered on Thursday, 48,087 were given to people who were between 18 and 44 years old. While civic centres delivered 18,053 of these shots, 3,315 were given by state government-run facilities.

During the day, 3,872 shots were given to senior citizens and 11,738 were given to people in the 45-59 age group. The other beneficiaries included 30 international students and three lactating mothers.