The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will conduct a Covid-19 vaccination drive only for women on Friday in a move to reduce gender disparity in immunisation and vaccine hesitancy among women.
The drive will be held at more than 300 civic and government-run centres from 10.30 am to 6.30 pm on Friday.
Women can directly walk into the centres without a prior appointment for the first and second doses on Friday. “All women can walk into the centres for their dose, online registration will be closed,” stated the BMC.
The move comes after the state government asked nine districts, including Mumbai and Pune, to improve vaccination among women. In a letter issued on September 13, the additional director of health services, Archana Patil, stated that there was a difference of over 8 per cent in the vaccination figures of men and women in nine districts — Raigad (15 per cent), Mumbai (14 per cent), Aurangabad (12 per cent) and Pune (11 per cent) are some of the districts with the highest gender disparity in vaccination.
Earlier this month, in a bid to increase the number of fully vaccinated citizens, BMC had reserved a day for those waiting for the second dose. Civic-run centres had administered a second dose of the vaccine to 81,705 citizens in a day.
Last week, in order to meet the administrative and technical requirements including planning of special vaccination campaigns, the civic body had suspended the drive for a day.
BMC is also exploring reserving a few centres for women in all 24 wards. Ward officers have been directed to plan a day in their respective wards when only women can come for vaccination.
To get the maximum number of citizens immunised, BMC continues to conduct special vaccination drives for lactating mothers, pregnant women, those who are bedridden and citizens without identity proof. The civic body last month also kicked off ‘Vaccine on Wheels’ for the vulnerable and underprivileged communities. Under the initiative, the civic body is reaching out to sex workers, HIV-positive persons, migrant workers, labourers, street vendors and hawkers to administer the Covid-19 vaccine.
The civic body along with the NGO Project Mumbai vaccinated 4,902 citizens who are bedridden and immobile since July 30. Out of the total, 1,318 were administered the second dose. Also, 1,350 pregnant women and 8,132 lactating mothers are vaccinated in the city.