Mumbai: BMC issues new norms for vaccination camps at offices, housing societies

In light of the recent Covid-19 vaccination scam, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has issued additional guidelines and stated that inoculation at housing societies and workplaces will only be conducted by private vaccination centres registered on the Co-WIN portal, an official said on Friday.

The civic body also released a list of around 95 private vaccination centres in the city registered on the Co-WIN portal of the Union government and contact details of ward-level war rooms. As per the guidelines issued on Thursday, vaccination at workplaces and housing societies will be carried out by registered private Covid-19 vaccination centres only, and managements of offices and housing societies will have to ensure that these centres are registered on Co-WIN by contacting the local authority.

Office and housing society managements will have to designate a person to work as a "nodal officer" and coordinate with private vaccination centres and support vaccination activities, it was stated.

The nodal officer will oversee and facilitate all aspects of vaccination such as registration of beneficiaries, availability of physical and IT infrastructure and oversee vaccination etc, the guidelines stated.

The BMC had last month issued guidelines for vaccination at workplaces and housing societies, making a memorandum of understanding (MoU) mandatory with private Covid vaccination centres, but detailed roles and responsibilities were missing in it.

Now, the nodal officer will have to ensure that an MoU is signed by the secretary of the housing society and registered private vaccination centre, and the details about the date of vaccination has to be displayed on the notice board of the society, it was stated.

As per the guidelines, housing societies will have to inform their respective medical officer and local police station about the vaccination camps at least three days in advance. The nodal officer of private vaccination centres will have to ensure that all beneficiaries get a link of digital certificates, while the health department team will also conduct random surprise visits to vaccination sites, it was stated.

The Mumbai police have registered 10 FIRs so far after a racket that held bogus vaccination camps for housing societies and private firms came to light last month. According to the BMC, 54,67,805 citizens have been inoculated in the metropolis so far, and of these, 10,83,266 beneficiaries have received the second dose as well.

Presently, there are 399 active Covid-19 vaccination centres in the city, of which 281 were operated by the BMC, 20 were government-run and 98 are private centres.