On first day, 1,000 people in 18-44 group inoculated in Mumbai

The vaccination drive for the people in the age group of 18 to 44 years took off in Mumbai with limited access even as the city civic body stressed to have achieved the set target of inoculating 1,000 people on the first day on Saturday.

A senior Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) official said the civic body has decided to increase the target of inoculating the individuals in the 18-44 age group to 2,500 on Sunday.

"We have decided to vaccinate 200 people from the 18-44 age category today at each of all the five centres and we have fully achieved this target. Each centre was supposed to vaccinate 200 people," Additional Municipal Commissioner Suresh Kakani told PTI.

The BMC has identified five centres for COVID-19 vaccination for the age group 18-44 at Nair Hospital, BKC Jumbo Facility, Cooper Hospital, Seven Hills Hospital and Rajawadi Hospital.

The vaccination for the above age group was allowed only through prior registration and walk-ins at the centres are not allowed to avoid crowding.

Kakani said the BMC has decided to increase the target to inoculate 500 individuals in the 18-44 age group at each centre on Sunday.

"It means we will vaccinate 2,500 people from this category tomorrow (Sunday)," he said.

Kakani said a separate drive for the above-45 age group will continue depending upon the supply of vaccines from the Centre.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday said the vaccine doses for the 18-44 age group will be administered as per availability and people should not crowd vaccination centres.

Vaccination for the citizens in the age group of 18 to 44 against COVID-19 is free at government hospitals, but citizens will have to pay for the jabs at private facilities.

Municipal Commissioner I S Chahal had said on Friday that COVID-19 test positivity rate in Mumbai dropped below 10 per cent to 9.94 per cent as of April 29 despite conducting nearly 44,000 tests.

Mumbai's COVID-19 caseload stood at 6,48,624 as of April 30 while the overall fatality count is 13,161, as per the civic data.