The centre plans to vaccinate the entire adult population by December-end (File)
All government-run COVID-19 vaccination centres will remain shut in Mumbai today, tweeted the city's civic body, apologising for the inconvenience and asking people to "watch this space" for further updates. The Mumbai Civic body did not mention any reason in the tweet, but it is likely owing to shortage of vaccine supplies.
"Dear Mumbaikars, Please note that all BMC and Government vaccination centers will remain closed tomorrow (July 1, 2021). We apologize for the inconvenience. Please watch this space for updates regarding vaccination centres and schedules," tweeted Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, which runs the free vaccination programme in the metropolis.
Mumbai, one of the worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic, administered 88,840 doses of Covid vaccines on June 28 and has the capacity to deliver one lakh vaccinations a day.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told his ministers that vaccination should be done on a war footing, reported news agency PTI.
Earlier this week, PM Modi, noting that India's Covid vaccination drive "keeps gaining" momentum, reiterated that "vaccines for all, free for all" remains the government's commitment. The comment was in response to India surpassing the United States in total number of doses administered so far.
According to data based on the Health Ministry's affidavit in Supreme Court and the number of vaccinations done in India so far, vaccination rates are likely to decline in July as the supply rate will be lower than India's current vaccination rate for 23 out of 32 states and Union Territories.
The average vaccination rate in June for India was 40.3 lakh doses per day while in July, the average daily vaccine supply rate will be 38.3 lakh doses per day. This might end up resulting in a shortfall of 2 lakh doses per day.
The centre plans to vaccinate the entire adult population against COVID-19 by the end of this year but many parts in the country are running out of doses.
Empty vaccination centres in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have raised questions over the availability of vaccines in India.
In Bihar's Patna, vaccinations dipped from a record 76,000 on June 25 to 21,000 on Tuesday. And most of the government's 160 centres have run out of doses.
The vaccination rate has also dipped across Uttar Pradesh -- from recording the highest ever inoculations on June 24 with more than 8.5 lakh plus doses to just 1.8 lakh doses on Tuesday.
Other states which have reported a shortage of vaccines over the past few days include Jharkhand, Gujarat, Punjab, Assam and Bengal.