At Nesco jumbo vaccination centre in Goregaon
MUMBAI: The Mumbai Central and Agripada Advanced Locality Management (MCA ALM) will next week roll out the city’s first citizen-driven cluster vaccination for residents of their area. The ALM has tied up with Dr Reddy’s Laboratories who will supply them with the Russian-made Sputnik vaccine. For administering the doses, the ALM has tied up with the Wockhardt Hospital in their neighbourhood.
Once it rolls out, this will also be the first time that residents will be vaccinated with Sputnik. So far Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), state government and private hospitals have vaccinated residents with Covishield and Covaxin.
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MUMBAI: In the six days since senior citizens have started getting the Covid vaccine, various hospitals have literally been rolling out the red carpet for them.
If some corporate hospitals are visiting housing colonies to hold camps to help the elderly register themselves on the Co-WIN portal, others are offering cups of teas and biscuits to seniors after the shot. Wheelchairs on arrivals, no queues for super seniors over 80 years of age, and couselling are some of the other perks of being old at the vaccine centres.
At the BMC-run Mulund jumbo centre, for instance, staffers have been pooling money to buy 50 to 60 packets of biscuits and organise tea for the senior citizens. “The local Lions Clubs has now shown interest in helping us out,” said dean Dr Pradeep Angre, who walks around the huge centre with 20 vaccine booths advising recipients to take paracetamol in the evening and the need to continue wearing masks.
Elders at the Rajawadi Hosp vaccination centre in Ghatkopar
MUMBAI: On the third day of the expanded vaccination drive including senior citizens and those above 45 with co-morbidities, crowd management remained an issue in some of the public centres. Gates of the Nesco jumbo hospital in Goregaon had to be closed before 4pm as hundreds were still waiting. “On-spot registration is leading to overcrowding and a solution is urgently needed,” said a doctor, adding that people have started queuing from 7am. “The software must be tweaked to provide specific time slots,” he said.
At the Mulund jumbo centre, there were over 100 senior citizens still waiting to be vaccinated at 4.50pm. One said he had been waiting since 12 noon and got vaccinated around 4.45pm. Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner, said walk-in registrations have to run as not everyone has access to mobile phone or internet.