Arthur Road Jail and Byculla District Prison inmates are now vaccinated with both doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Project Mumbai, an NGO, carried out the vaccination drive inside the prison along with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Shishir Joshi, CEO and founder of Project Mumbai, said that a total of 34,000 inmates from Arthur Jail and 900 from Byculla Prison are fully vaccinated, as of Friday.
He further said that prisons are crowded places. Therefore, it was necessary to complete the vaccination process as soon as possible since it is difficult to maintain social distancing.
One of the volunteers from the NGO said that foreign inmates were apprehensive of getting jabbed since they had read about the fake vaccine scams. However, they were informed that the vaccine had come directly from the corporation.
While new inmates who had earlier taken the first shot of vaccine before coming to the jail were given the second shot after checking their certificates.
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An officer, while talking to the Times of India, said that few inmates had taken the first dose and were later granted bail. They have been provided with a printed certificate so they can take the second jab outside.
If there are more newcomers in the jail, they will rope in the NGO again. In case there are fewer inmates, they will contact BMC's E ward office for vaccination, he added.
Mumbai have already achieved its set target of administering the first dose of coronavirus vaccine on November 13. However, Dr Mangala Gomare, Mumbai's executive health officer said they will continue the vaccination drive aggressively.
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