Shortage Pushes Mumbai's Civic Body To Suspend Vaccination For A Day

The vaccination drive against COVID at more than 300 civic and government-run vaccination centres in Mumbai has been suspended for a day on Wednesday, August 4. According to a statement issued by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), it expects the fresh stock to arrive by late Wednesday, August 4. They said that the drive would resume as soon as there is adequate supply.

Due to the shortage, only half of the civic and government-run clinics were functional from Monday (August 2). The corporation received 1.8 lakh vaccines in the last week of July, and they managed to vaccinate over a lakh people twice in the previous week. Apart from that, on average, the city had recorded 70,000 vaccine inoculations on most days for the last few weeks. The BMC tweeted from its official handle mentioning the suspension and the shortage.

Not A First Time Occurrence

However, this is not the first time that vaccination has been suspended in the city. In July, vaccination remained suspended for nine days in Mumbai and led to a 15 per cent drop in immunization against COVID in the city last month. The drive was cancelled in the public sector on nine days, including four Sundays when the BMC doesn't vaccinate, and another five days, when the doses were in short supply or in transit.

Meanwhile, the city reported 288 new COVID cases on Tuesday, August 3, taking the total tally to more than 7 lakh cases. More than 400 COVID patients recovered on August 2. On the whole, 7,12,723 have recovered in the city. Currently, there are 4,616 active cases in Mumbai. According to the new guidelines of Mumbai, all the establishments and shops in the city are allowed to open till 10 pm.

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