The footfall of beneficiaries continues to be high at Mumbai’s COVID-19 vaccination centres. A total of 43,581 beneficiaries, including 30,624 senior citizens above 60 years and 3,877 beneficiaries with comorbidities between the age of 45 years and 59 years, received a dose of the vaccine on Tuesday.
This is the highest number of patients to be inoculated in a single day so far.
Before the start of the ongoing drive, BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) had set up a target of vaccinating 50,000 beneficiaries daily. Now, that the inoculation rate has risen, officials stated that they would be able to reach their target by this week.
"After we reach the 50,000 mark, we will set up a target of vaccinating 75,000 beneficiaries daily. By the end of this month, hopefully, we will be able to vaccinate close to one lakh beneficiaries daily,” Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner and incharge of public health in BMC told the Free Press Journal.
On Tuesday, a total 68 vaccination centres took part in the drive, which included 38 private hospitals and dispensaries, 24 civic-run hospitals and six state-run hospitals.
Senior civic health officials said, now that the number of beneficiaries have started to rise, more private hospitals will be roped in eventually. "In many hospitals, inoculation continued till late evening and we are hopeful that more people will turn up in the coming days," Kakani added.
Dr Gautam Bhansali, consultant physician of Bombay Hospital and coordinator of private hospitals, said the entire vaccination process went hassle-free on Tuesday.
"We have set up five booths to ensure there is no crowding. The operation went on smoothly on Tuesday without any problem," Bhansali said.
Alongside this, a total of 2,420 healthcare workers (HCWs) took the first dose and 3,936 HCWs took the second dose of the vaccine. Also, a total of 1,345 frontline workers (FLWs) took their first dose and 1,379 FLWs took the second dose of the vaccine on Tuesday.
From Wednesday, three more private medical facilities affiliated under the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) will participate in the drive. These hospitals include - Sarvodaya (Ghatkopar), NJ Wadia (Parel) and Rane Hospital (Chembur).
