The health department of the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) received its first batch of vaccine from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) as the entire nation enthusiastically gears up for the mass vaccination drive which begins from January 16.
The MBMC received a total of 8,000 doses of Covishield vaccine which have been kept in a storage facility at MBMC’s main administrative building in Bhayandar (west).
As of now the civic body has earmarked three vaccination centres including a private hospital in Mira Road and two MBMC-run healthcare establishments including Jumbo Facility and Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Civil Hospital in the east and west side of Bhayandar respectively.
Not more than 100 doses per vaccination centre will be administered to beneficiaries per day. So, on January 16 only 300 beneficiaries are expected to be vaccinated from 9 am to 5 pm. The drive will take-off after Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates the campaign facilitated by a two-way live interaction with the state administration during a webcast at the launch.
“A list of around 6,312 medico’s and front-line workers from 21 public and 671 private healthcare establishments who have been enrolled in the central government created mobile application will receive the vaccine in the first phase," said immunization officer Dr Anjali Patil.
While the MBMC has received only 8,000 doses, it will need more than 12,624 doses for 6,312 listed beneficiaries taking into account the waste multiplication factor. To detect and weed out logistical issues that may crop up during the actual immunization process, the MBMC had recently conducted dry runs of COVID-19 vaccinations at three municipal and six private health care units in the twin city.
