Mumbai will have these 8 centres for COVID-19 vaccination

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has already started preparing for COVID-19 vaccine distribution in the city. The civic body has also started training its staff about the vaccine. The training sessions will be over by January 7.

So far, eight vaccination centres in KEM, Sion, Nair, Cooper, Bhabha Bandra, Rajawadi, Bhabha Kurla and Jogeshwari Trauma hospital have been identified. Each peripheral hospital will be attached to a medical college to refer to cases of adverse reaction post immunisation.

Moreover, according to reports, the civic body has begun the process to set up the first vaccination centre at the Cooper Hospital for the first phase. Besides, the Centre had also issued guidelines for the distribution COVID-19 vaccine.

Read More: Things you need to know about COVID-19 vaccination in India

Meanwhile, the BMC has floated a tender to install a storage system in its Kanjurmarg building, which will act as a nodal vaccination store facility. The COVID-19 vaccine will be stored on an area of 5,000 square feet on the first floor of the family building at Kanjurmarg. The vaccine storage facility is being developed in accordance with the regulations of the Central Government including the World Health Organization.

The technical committee required for cold storage has been set up under the chairmanship of Additional Municipal Commissioner (Western Suburbs) Suresh Kakani. The committee includes technical experts from the National Cold Chain Research Center as well as other experts from the public health department and representatives from the mechanical and electrical departments.

Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani said the facility will have two walk-in coolers of 40 cubic metres at a temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius, one walk-in freezer of 20 cubic metres with -15 to -250 degrees Celsius temperature and several ice-lined refrigerators (ILR). BMC will get 17 ILRs, eight of which will be kept in vaccination centres. Each vehicle carrying vaccines will have a police escort for security.