Mumbai’s COVID-19 vaccination to halt due to lack of vaccines: Mayor

Mumbai: The ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in Mumbai will come to a halt from Friday as the stock of vaccine doses in the city is about to end, Mayor Kishori Pednekar said.

Talking to PTI on Thursday, she said that the vaccination drive could continue only if the city receives enough doses.

“The vaccination drive in the city will definitely come to a halt from Friday…Only if the city gets the supply (of vaccines), the drive will continue,” Pednekar said.

“The existing stock of vaccine doses could last only till today(Thursday) evening and Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has also declared about it,” she added.

This is for the first time that Maharashtra is going through such a “worst situation”, she said and held the Union government responsible for it.

The mayor said that due to the shortage of vaccines, it would be difficult for the authorities to administer the second dose of vaccines to those people who have got the first dose so far.

Meanwhile, several civic-run, as well as private hospitals in the city, have put up boards outside their premises, which read that due to the unavailability of vaccines, the vaccination process cannot be carried out.

The health department officials of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), however, did not respond to the query related to vaccination.

Till April 7, over 15.52 lakh vaccine doses were administered to the people, including the essential services staff and frontline workers in the city. Of them, more than 1.72 lakh people were given a second dose of the vaccines.

Health Minister Rajesh Tope had on Wednesday said that many inoculation centers in Maharashtra are being shut due to the shortage of coronavirus vaccine.