Amid an acute shortage of vials across the state, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday, May 12, decided to suspend the COVID-19 vaccination drive for the 18-44 years age group in Mumbai until further notice.
The announcement followed the Maharashtra government's decision to suspend inoculation for this category and divert the vaccine stock for the above 45 years age group due to paucity of doses. Tope clarified that vaccination cannot be accelerated until adequate stocks of vaccines are available.
In a meeting that was held by the state cabinet, it was decided that priority will be given to citizens above 45 years of age, who will be taking a second dose of vaccines.
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said that SII has informed it that it would be able to provide 1.5 crore Covishield vaccines to the state only from May 20 onwards.
"There is no sufficient supply of vaccine vials by the Centre for inoculation of above-45 age group people. Hence, the state cabinet decided to divert the stock, purchased for the 18-44 age group, for the above-45 age group. Therefore, we are suspending the inoculation of the 18-44 age group for some period," Tope said.
At present, the government has 7 lakh doses of Covshield and 10 lakh doses of Covaxin. This would be sufficient only for the next four days.
Moreover, the first dose will not be given to the citizens of this age group for the next few days. In addition, the BMC also issued revised guidelines allowing walk-in vaccination in Mumbai for certain categories for three days.
Earlier, Health Minister Rajesh Tope had mentioned that vaccination of citizens between 18 to 44 years should not be carried out from May 1 due to insufficient supply of vaccines from the Center and the inability of vaccine manufacturers to provide adequate vaccines immediately.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced to start vaccination of citizens in the age group of 18 to 44 years from May 1.
Share
Tweet
