On Tuesday, April 27, Mumbai’s civic body, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) announced that the vaccination for the coronavirus for the 18-44 age group will be available only in private centres when the next phase begins.
According to reports, there is uncertainty over the launch date of the next stage due to a shortage of vaccines in the state of Maharashtra, however, the civic body is believed to have assured private hospitals that it will supply them doses.
Meanwhile, earlier on Tuesday, Maharashtra reached a new milestone of administering 1.5 crore vaccine doses, while Mumbai hit a daily high of 72,606 vaccinations before running out of supplies in many centres.
On the other hand, BMC Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal had earlier stated that unless the city was assured of adequate vaccine doses for the population in the 18-44 age group by the state government, the civic body may not roll out the drive on May 1. He further added that he was willing to face criticism for his stand, but it was practical. Mumbai has an estimated 50-60 lakh population that falls in the 18-44 age bracket, and hence the tentative doses required would be 1.2 crores.
Furthermore, until assured of adequate supply for all, we would want to continue vaccinating only those in the 45-plus category, he said, once again underlining that there was no point in asking everyone to come on the road if there were no vaccines.
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