Seventy-five of the 120 vaccination centres across Mumbai, including a jumbo Covid-19 facility in business district BKC, suspended inoculation on Friday morning due to a shortage of doses, BMC sources said.

The remaining centres are likely to suspend the vaccination drive by afternoon or evening as the available stock is fast depleting, according to the sources. Meanwhile, Mumbai is expected to get up to 1.80 lakh fresh doses of Covid19 vaccines on Friday, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) executive health officer Mangala Gomare said.

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According to the sources, as many as 75 of the 120 centres, mainly at private hospitals, suspended vaccination on Friday morning due to unavailability of doses, while some other centres suspended the drive within a few hours after the stock got over. The jumbo Covid-19 centre at BKC, where the civic body has set up a mega inoculation facility, also suspended vaccination after administering less than 200 doses available in stock, a doctor at the centre said.

On Thursday, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar had said that due to a shortage of doses, the vaccination drive will come to halt at all centres in Mumbai from Friday, and sought immediate supplies to replenish the existing stock.

The civic body had claimed it had suspended vaccination at 25 centres in private hospitals on Thursday due to unavailability of doses. ‘Shortage not of vaccines, but of commitment’: Hours after Rahul Gandhi wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging “vaccine starvation” in the nation, Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad hit out at him, claiming the shortage in Congress-ruled states is not of vaccines but of commitment.

Gandhi, in his letter to Modi, had demanded an immediate moratorium on Covid-19 vaccine exports contending that the nation is facing “vaccine starvation” Hitting back, Prasad tweeted, “Rahul Gandhi must know that shortage in Congress-ruled states is not of vaccines but of basic commitment towards healthcare.”

“He should write letters to his party’s governments to stop their vasooli (extortion) ventures and concentrate on administering the lakhs of vaccines they are sitting on,” he said.

Gandhi also sought more say to state governments in vaccine procurement and distribution.
(With input from PTI)