Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said that vaccination for all above the age of 18 years will restart on Wednesday in the city, over 40 days after the drive was suspended owing to the shortage of vaccine doses. The Maharashtra government has allowed vaccination for all above 18 years of age from Tuesday. However, the BMC on Tuesday said it will start vaccination from Wednesday or Thursday owing to the arrangements required for the same.

According to civic body officials, to start vaccination for all above the age of 18 years, crowding will be a major concern, hence the BMC did not start vaccination for all above 18 from Tuesday to undertake preparations for the same. The civic body officials said that daily 50% of slots will be available through online booking and the rest slots will be for walk-in.

Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner of the BMC said, “Vaccination for all above 18 years of age will start in the city from Wednesday. We have given around 150 doses in each centre for the 18-45 age group. Initially, it will be limited for now and going ahead we will increase the doses as the response increases and we get more stock.”Kakani added, “Vaccination across all age groups will be conducted at all vaccination centres to ensure there is no crowding. We had initially thought to designate centres on basis of age groups but we think this might result in crowding.”However, according to BMC officials, if there is crowding at centres, they will develop a mechanism to control the same.

As of Tuesday, BMC says they have vaccine stock that will last for around five days. Every vaccination centre is given 200 to 300 vaccine doses as per the demand and usage. Currently, there are 380 active vaccination centres in the city, of which, 268 are active civic-run centres, 20 centres are of state and Central government, and the remaining 92 are private vaccination centres.