After almost a month, the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) administered Covid vaccines at its all centres the city on Friday. In fact, the civic body added 17 more centres to the existing 74 centres, taking the total number of centres to 91. Around 13,000 citizens were given the first dose of the vaccine on Friday.
There has been inconsistency in the supply of vaccines and this has affected the drive in the city. Due to the unavailability of the first dose, the civic body operated a few centres for the second dose. The super spreaders like chemists, barbershops staff, LPG cylinder delivery men and auto and taxi drivers were given the first doses at special drives.
“NMMC is making efforts to vaccinate as many people as possible before the possible third wave of Covid. The vaccination drive is being planned as per the availability of the vaccine. In order to enable the citizens to get vaccinated near their homes, the civic body has increased the number of centres,” said civic chief Abhijit Bangar.
On Friday, the first dose of vaccine was given to citizens above 45 years of age and to make it more convenient for the citizens, the existing 74 vaccination centers of the corporation have been augmented by 17 centers. A total of 91 vaccination centers were operational for vaccination on Friday. “These 17 additional vaccination centers include 10 schools, 2 community centers, 3 senior citizen centers, 1-night shelter and 1 Art of Living center,” said an official from the Health Department. The official added that there was no second dose vaccination on Friday.
According to officials, the civic body received a total of 17500 doses of Covishield and 5000 doses of Covaxin on Thursday and accordingly, on Friday, as many citizens were given the vaccine.
So far, the civic body had already administered 6,55,562 citizens with the first dose of vaccine and 2,02,453 citizens with the second dose.