JOIN USMumbai reels under severe Covid-19 vaccine shortage
Serpentine queues were witnessed, confusion and chaos prevailed and tempers ran high amid the sweeping second wave of Covid-19 as Mumbai, the financial hub of India and several urban towns reeled under severe shortage of vaccine on Friday.
The entire Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) is suffering from vaccine shortage. Other worst-affected areas and hotspots like the cultural capital of Pune, the pilgrimage town of Nashik and the winter capital of Nagpur are also seeing the same trend.
“I visited a vaccination centre in the morning but saw a long queue. Only 150 persons were taken in and the rest were given tokens… I could get a token for Monday after waiting for two to three hours,” said M K Chakraborty, a resident of Vasai.
Mumbai’s biggest vaccination centre—the Jumbo Field Hhospital at the Bandra-Kurla Complex has been shut temporarily. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has been trying hard to convince people that they have run out of stocks.
"We have 160 doses left. We will be giving that to people as per rule… those above 45 years of age and frontline workers," said Dr Rajesh Dere, the dean of the field hospital.
Mumbai mayor Kishori Pednekar said that she has been told that by evening some stocks would come from the Pune-based Serum Institute of India.
"There are several vaccination centres that have zero vaccines now and vaccination has stopped there... I have come to know that some 76,000 to one lakh doses are about to reach Mumbai by today but I don't have any official info on this,” she said.
In Mumbai, 70-odd vaccination centres of the 120 total have run out of vaccines.
The BMC, in its Twitter handle, said: “Dear Mumbaikars. Some of the vaccination centres are short of vaccines due to the non-receipt of stocks from the Govt of India but all centres should be up and vaccinating soon. We regret the inconvenience and we shall keep you updated.”