BMC to set up vaccination camps in schools and jr colleges to inoculate max adolescents

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Tuesday said that in order to inoculate maximum number of adolescents between the age group of 15-18 years, vaccination camps will be set up in private and public schools along with some junior colleges in the city. Inoculation of 15–18-year-old adolescents started from January 3, 2022 and till January 18, a total of 1,90,237 adolescents have been vaccinated. On Tuesday, the BMC said that as many as 9.18 lakh adolescents in this age bracket living in Mumbai are eligible to take the doses.

“So far, we have been able to vaccinate 20% of the target population and to expedite the process, vaccination camps will be held within the premises of every school in the city. This will be compulsory for private institutions also so they can get their students registered and vaccinated at the earliest,” said Suresh Kakani, additional municipal commissioner and in-charge of public health in the BMC.

Kakani said that junior colleges that have a significant proportion of students between 15-18 years will also have to arrange their own camps.

On Tuesday, a Covid-19 review meeting was held at the BMC that was also attended by state minister of environment, Aaditya Thackeray. The key agenda of the meeting was ramping up the drive for adolescents in Mumbai.

Kakani said that so far, 125 plus private schools have been finalised and camps in these schools will begin soon. “We are starting this in a phased manner. Some of the schools in Mumbai have already started to have their own vaccination camps through private hospitals. Tomorrow (Thursday) we have a meeting with the school authorities following which we will prepare SOPs for this and by the end of this week or early next week camps in these schools will be started,” Kakani said.

He also added that in case a school doesn’t have adequate student strength then it can arrange joint vaccination camps with nearby schools and junior colleges in their wards.

According to the rules laid out by the government of India, only Covaxin doses are being administered to the adolescent beneficiaries. The BMC has set up dedicated vaccination booths in nine of its jumbo centres where doses are being administered exclusively to the adolescent beneficiaries.

Kakani on Tuesday said that to avoid mixing up of doses the beneficiaries will be allotted time slots at vaccination booths.

“Besides adolescents, all other eligible students are also coming for their doses in jumbo centres and they are preferring Covishield over Covaxin. So to avoid mixing up doses we will divide our staffers in shifts and allocate time slots to them. For example, 15-18 years will get their doses only in the afternoon while the rest of the eligible beneficiaries will get their doses in the morning,” said Kakani.

The BMC on Tuesday also hinted that reopening of schools can happen anytime soon. Kakani said that during the meeting possibilities of reopening schools were discussed as well.

“We want to open schools at the earliest which is why we are working towards vaccinating as many adolescents as we can at the earliest. We have conveyed this to the task force during the meeting and they will take up this matter to the state government following which a decision could be taken,” Kakani said.