Raising alarm over shortage of COVID-19 vaccines in Mumbai, Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar on Friday claimed several vaccination centres in the city had zero stock now.
Pednekar was quoted by ANI as saying, "There are several vaccination centres that have zero vaccines now and vaccination has stopped there... I have come to know that some 76,000 to 1 lakh doses are about to reach Mumbai by today, but I don't have any official info on this."
Pednekar declared the civic administration was "doing everything possible to combat the COVID situation in a better way; increasing of beds and other amenities is being done on war footing". Mumbai recorded a total of 8,938 COVID-19 cases on Thursday, taking the total tally of the metropolis to 4,91,698.
Pednekar had said on Thursday that COVID-19 vaccination drive in Mumbai could come to a halt by Friday. "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. The existing stock of vaccine doses could last only till today (Thursday) evening and Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope has also declared about it," Pednekar had said.
On Thursday, several civic-run as well as private hospitals in the city had put up boards outside their premises, which read that due to the unavailability of vaccines, the vaccination process cannot be carried out.
Pednekar 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.
On Thursday, Pednekar had blamed the Centre for the vaccine crisis. However, on Friday, she sounded more conciliatory. Pednekar was quoted by ANI as saying, "PM [Narendra Modi] is serious and proactive about our issues but it seems that the people under PM are not taking this issue with the same seriousness." Pednekar is a member of the Shiv Sena.
