For the third consecutive day, less than one lakh beneficiaries took Covid-19 jabs at 460 centres across the city. According to BMC data, 75,980 people were administered vaccines on Friday; 14,196 took jabs at civic-run centres, 58,822 at private centres and 2,242 at state-run centres.
A senior health officer from the Maharashtra public health department said their target for September was based on assurance of adequate supply. “We expect to administer more than 20 million doses in September. We have been assured of adequate supply by the Central government; the numbers will go up if vaccine production increases. Private hospitals have also contributed significantly to the drive,” he said.
Additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani said, “Completion of the drive will depend on the supply. Currently, over nine million vaccine doses have been administered. Of this, we are assuming that around 20 per cent are outsiders and the remaining 80 per cent are Mumbai residents. The 20 per cent also matter because if a person works in Mumbai but stays outside then too our city stays safe. It is also important that the floating population has access to vaccines.”
A senior doctor said that the pace of vaccination drives should be increased in hotspots. “The government needs to speed up drives as well as strictly enforce Covid-appropriate behaviour in districts that are still witnessing high case count,” he said.
