Mumbai: Mumbai will move a step forward on Monday in the fight against coronavirus as it starts vaccinating those in the 15-18 age group.
The civic body in India's financial capital has set up dedicated vaccination centres in nine of its jumbo centres to ensure a speedy pace where a walk-in facility will be available.
These centres are the Richardson and Cruddas Centre at Byculla, the NESCO jumbo centre at Goregaon, the NSCI at Worli, the BKC jumbo centre and the Jumbo centres at Kanjurmarg, Malad, Mulund and Dahisar, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has said.
In the first week, the civic body has set a target of inoculating 2,500 teenagers in Mumbai per day.
Maharashtra Minister Aaditya Thackeray, along with mayor Kishori Pednekar, will inaugurate the vaccination programme at the BKC jumbo covid centre at 11 am on Monday.
"We have made a special arrangement for children so that they feel comfortable. There are separate waiting and observation rooms are available for them," Dean of the BKC Jumbo vaccination center Dr Rajesh Dhere was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
"Motivating notes are written on the board so that they feel comfortable talking vaccination," he added.
Across Maharashtra, 1,000 sessions will be conducted for the vaccination of teenagers and for now children will ge Covaxin shots only.
The new drive begins as the city sees a tremendous surge in Covid cases. On Sunday, Mumbai recorded 8,063 Covid cases as the state logged 11,877 new infections.
Mumbai is one of the top cities witnessing a surge yet again believed to be driven by the new variant.