Severe vaccine shortage forces citizens to go home without immunisation despite having appointments
Chaos ruled the Mulund jumbo COVID centre on Friday
Scores of citizens went home disappointed on Friday after they were turned away from vaccination centres in the eastern suburbs of Mulund and Ghatkopar for want of doses, mirroring scenes at inoculation points across the city.
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Chaos ruled the Mulund jumbo COVID-19 centre on the LBS Road where the police had to step in to manage queues and social distancing. It had just 500 shots in the morning that got over in two to three hours.
Authorities at the jumbo facility took to the public address system to ask those with an appointment to wait, but they could not inoculate all such people.
Calling it injustice, local resident Mohan Sable said, “I am a senior citizen and waited in the sun for one and a half hours. When I moved near the gate, we were told that there were no vaccines left. Had they informed us earlier, we would have saved time and effort. The poor man is suffering because of politics between the state and the centre.”
Fellow vaccine-seeker Mahesh Waghmare was told to go back after waiting for two hours. The 73-year-old said, “How many times should I take an auto to come and check on this. They should have some system to tell how many people they could cater to and take in only that many number of beneficiaries. This has happened for the second time.”
Vijay Bhanushali said he learnt at the centre that it would remain shut till Monday. He said his ageing parents could not get the jabs.
Serpentine queues were seen at Mithagar COVID Centre in Mulund East, though authorities there were not sure if they would be able to cover all. “As of now, we do not have vaccines for tomorrow. We will try and give doses till they last and do not know how many they will cover,” said centre administrator Swapnil Patil.
Mulund MLA Mihir Kotecha, who belongs to the BJP, people seem to be rushing to centres over reports of vaccine shortage. He said fresh stock was expected in the night and there was no reason to worry.
“Supplies have been steady and there has been mismanagement by the Maharashtra government. Powerful leaders in the government have taken away supplies to their rural districts,” he alleged.
Citizens appeared equally frustrated at Ghatkopar. Shreyas Panchal said his parents and grandmother, all senior citizens, could not get the doses at Sarvodaya Hospital.
“What I am most disappointed with is that we were not even notified regarding a shortage of vaccines at the registered centre,” he said. Prateek Dwivedi said his mother visited the hospital as per her appointment and was greeted with a board that read “Closed due to non-availability of vaccine from BMC”.
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