More than 290 students who are set to travel abroad for their higher studies this year, took the first dose of their Covishield vaccine on Saturday, at a private vaccination camp in Mulund organised exclusively for the students.
This comes a day after the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced free walk-in vaccination camp for the outgoing students at three civic run hospitals between Monday (May 31) and Wednesday (June 2). The students who took the vaccine on Saturday had to pay Rs 850 for their doses and said that delaying the session by a couple of days could have their admissions cancelled. Both students and parents said that most of the universities in Europe and United States of America start their semester during mid-August, and as part of the admission criteria, it is compulsory for every student to have both their doses, before the start of the session.
"My daughter took her first dose Saturday and the date for the second dose is somewhere around August 20-22. Her session in UK is set to start at August 25, as you can see, delaying the process for couple of days just to get the dose for free could lead to the cancellation of her admission," said Preeti Desai, a parent.
"BMC's notification came late on Saturday night, even though they said vaccines will be given for free, there was no clarity on how many doses will be administered. Last week my uncle stood for four hours at the queue and had to return without getting his dose," said Anmol Gupte - another parent, who got his son vaccinated.
The students also said that, many of them had been trying to get themselves registered at the CowWin app, for weeks.
"I have been trying to register for myself and my sister for more than a week now, but the process didn't complete due to technical glitch. After we came to know about this drive we registered ourselves and visited the hospital on the given day and took the dose. The process went smoothly," said Khyat Sharma, a student set to travel to University at California.
Some parents also came from satellite cities to get their children vaccinated.
"We live in Navi Mumbai and even though BMC has allowed, our municipal body hasn't made any announcement, so we came here to get the dose," said a parent requesting anonymity.
Saturday's camp was organised at Fortis Hospital in Mulund and arranged by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislator - Mihir Kotecha. From middle of May, Kotecha started to reach out to students and asked them to register themselves in his office, by providing a photocopy of their confirmed admission letter.
"We received an overwhelming response from the students within just one week. We had kept the slot of 300 students out of which total 292 students took their dose on Saturday," Kotecha told FPJ.
"Students who took their doses on Saturday were not just based in Mulund or nearby areas. Many of them came from western suburbs, island city and other satellite districts like Neral, Bhiwandi and Navi Mumbai," Kotecha said.
Meanwhile, Suresh Kakani - additional municipal commissioner and in-charge of public health in the BMC have said from Monday 100 doses will be reserved for the students in each of the centres.
"We have earmarked the centres and have allotted a quantity of 100 doses in each centre, if the demand increases then we will augment the capacity of doses," Kakani told FPJ.
