The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has decided to speed up the vaccination drive for the youth in the city.
Earlier, teenagers are being vaccinated in 10 Jumbo COVID centres in Mumbai. However, starting today, January 10, the jabs has been made available in 200 different centres in the city.
This decision comes amid rising coronavirus cases in the city and state and emerging fear of the third wave.
Since January 3, BMC started vaccination for children between 15 to 18 years of age. Since then, 58,678 teenagers have been inoculated so far.
There are 9,22,516 teenagers in the city, and BMC aims to complete the first dose of all teenagers within 28 days.
Talking about the same, BMC additional commissioner Suresh Kakani stated that more 200 centres have been facilitated for the vaccination so that children can take the shots in their nearby centres. “This our aim,” he added.
Meanwhile, in a conversation with media, Chairman of Health Committee BMC, Raju Patel said: “Number of patients are increasing and they have been kept in the Jumbo Covid centres. To avoid mass gatherings, I have written a letter to Kakani and requested to start the vaccination drive in all 24 wards of the city. The 10th and 12th standard examinations are a few months away and before that, we want to complete the vaccination drive.”
Among all the districts in Maharashtra, Pune has managed to vaccinate the highest number of adolescents so far, covering more than 1.48 lakh (24%) of its 15-18 years’ population with the first dose of vaccine.
The second spot in the list is occupied by Thane, which has immunized over 1.43 lakh teenagers.