To manage the crowd, BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to conduct the COVID-19 vaccination drive in two shifts - from 7 am to 2 pm and then from 2 pm to 9 pm. Civic officials said crowd management is of utmost importance during the vaccination drive. At a time, more than 100 people will be present at the centres, which could lead to chaos. This decision comes after the civic body conducted a COVID-19 vaccine dry run at three centres last week.
A target has also been set to vaccinate at least 100 people during the seven hours shift. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said the vaccines are likely to arrive in Mumbai today (January 13), following which it will be stored at the Kanjurmarg cold storage. From there, it will be distributed to nine centres, including the Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) vaccine centre.
Two teams of six people will be deployed to work in two shifts and handle the vaccination drive. “Earlier, we had decided on a five-member team, which included two nurses, a vaccinator, a ward boy and a security guard. However, now, we have decided to add one more vaccinator to the team to speed the process up. Meanwhile, to manage the crowd, we have decided to stagger the timings, so that people do not create any chaos at the centres,” he said. 50 of 72 vaccinate units will be active on the day of the vaccination drive.
Kakani said the teams will become more efficient in using Co-Win with time. Currently, there are no glitches in the application. On an average, it will take 8-10 minutes per person. “Co-Win was running in a restricted format during the dry run, but now all the modules have been activated. The application also accepted refusals in case someone came to the centre but changed his/her mind,” he said.
With mass immunization all across the world, doctors believe that there will be a growing demand for vaccination certificates. To address this, the beneficiaries will be given a QR code of their vaccination, which will hold the proof of their immunization. Also, after the completion of both the vaccines, they will be given an auto generated certificate on their phone.
