Mumbai: Amid drop in footfall of beneficiaries taking Covid vaccination, BMC to shut CVCs soon

Amid the drop in the footfall of beneficiaries taking Covid vaccination, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has now planned to shut some of the covid vaccine centres which have very low footfall.

Currently, the civic body is functioning 267 active covid vaccine centres across Mumbai. Civic officials said more than 95 per cent of Mumbai are fully vaccinated and some of the CVCs are getting less than 500 beneficiaries daily due to which they are planning to close CVCs and keep them on standby.

Suresh Kakani, Additional Municipal Commissioner, said that there are currently very fewer number beneficiaries taking covid vaccine centres at the CVCs due to which they are taking a decision on shutting a few of the centres.

“As the cases have dropped we shut down the jumbo covid centres, similarly CVCs will be shut down considering the footfall of beneficiaries coming to take the covid vaccine at these centres. Moreover, over 95 per cent of Mumbai population is fully vaccinated and nearly 40 per cent of beneficiaries have taken precautionary doses,” he said.

According to the Cowin portal, 2.01 crore people in Mumbai have been vaccinated, of which 1.05 crore have been administered with the first dose, while 91.94 lakhs have taken both doses of covid vaccine. Whereas 3,38,107 have taken the booster dose.

Senior health official from the civic health department said there is a need to shut those vaccine centres which are less in number and the manpower used at those centres will be used at the hospitals and existing jumbo covid centres.

Moreover, the vaccinations sit idle at the centres as less than 500 beneficiaries are coming to centres. “If we go by the data daily, less than 30,000 beneficiaries are taking vaccines in Mumbai compared to 60,000 to 70,000 and the number are less because most of them are vaccinated and people believe cases have dropped so getting vaccinated is of no issue,” said a doctor.