MUMBAI: On Monday, when the city recorded its second highest single-day turnout (93,997), BMC decided to increase the number of vaccine beneficiaries in each centre. On June 8, the highest-ever turnout of 96,860 was recorded.
“We have adequate vaccines at the moment and we have told our centres to increase the number of beneficiaries slowly,” said BMC’s executive health officer Dr Mangala Gomare. On Saturday, BMC vaccinated 11,023 beneficiaries when the overall turnout in the city was 70,461. On Monday, BMC centres vaccinated 18,526 people, including 358 people in the 18-44 age group who got their second vaccine (the BMC had for a few days from May 1 allowed the 18-44 age group to get vaccinated and stopped vaccinating them due to shortage of vaccines).
The BMC wants to vaccinate over 1 lakh recipients a day in order to complete the two-vaccine cycle for the bulk of the population eligible for vaccination within the next two to three months. According to the BMC vaccine update, 41 lakh shots have been administered since January 16. Of these, 32.8 lakh have got the first dose while 8.2 lakh are fully vaccinated.
Meanwhile, only 88,134 people turned up for vaccination across the state on Sunday. The state usually manages to vaccinate around 3 lakh people on weekdays. “We have vaccinated over 5 lakh in one day and if we get adequate vaccine doses from the centre from June 21, we would like to vaccinate 9 lakh people a day,” said a senior state public health department official.