6 million doses in June: Maharashtra to focus on 45+ age group

According to officials, Maharashtra is set to get four million vaccine doses from the Centre throughout June and it has placed a purchase order for two million doses, mainly for the 18-45 category.

With Maharashtra expected to get six million vaccine doses in June, the state’s focus is administering second doses to beneficiaries and covering maximum people for first dose in the 45+ age category. The state is awaiting enough stock to resume inoculation of beneficiaries in the 18-45 age category, senior health department officials said.

On Monday, Maharashtra administered 256,827 doses till 9pm, taking the tally to 22,582,329 doses. So far, 4,569,247 beneficiaries are fully inoculated, as per the data on CoWin portal. (AP file photo)

According to officials, Maharashtra is set to get four million vaccine doses from the Centre throughout June and it has placed a purchase order for two million doses, mainly for the 18-45 category. However, the 2 million doses could be diverted for inoculation of above 45, if there is a delay in supply from the Centre.

DN Patil, state immunisation officer, said that the distribution of the expected vaccine doses will be done on the basis of active patients, positivity rate, etc. He said the department will push vaccine doses in districts that are lagging behind in immunisation. “We will push the doses in areas that have high positivity. It is a combination of giving priority to second dose and pushing first dose to cover all areas. Besides, districts that have low vaccination percentage are given more doses to boost their numbers,” Patil said.

On Monday, Maharashtra administered 256,827 doses till 9pm, taking the tally to 22,582,329 doses. So far, 4,569,247 beneficiaries are fully inoculated, as per the data on CoWin portal.

Meanwhile, a formal decision is yet to be taken on when the drive for people in the 18-45 age group. The inoculation for the category was temporarily suspended since May 13 due to lack of adequate vaccine stock for second doses for those over 45 years. “We will see how the stock comes in—both from the Centre and what we purchase—depending on that, we will take a decision. We have not set a date for resumption for the drive for 18-45, but we hope to resume it in the near future,” added Patil.

Maharashtra has over 9,000 vaccination centres, including sub-centres, which cover 4-5 villages each.

From its share, the Central government allocates vaccines to states and union territories based on criteria such as number of active cases, speed of vaccination and wastage. “We have been following the same guidelines. Besides, we also look at the size of the population that is eligible for vaccine,” said an official.

The Centre had directed state governments and union territories to form a state steering committee, state task force and state control room. Similar committees and task forces have been formed down to the block level to plan and execute the vaccination drive, the official added. “We have implemented the organisational set up to form task force and committees under the chief secretary as directed by the Centre. Besides, we have enough experience to tackle large scale vaccination drives,” the official added.

Overall, the distribution of vaccines in the state depends on the population eligible for inoculation. Every district has cold chain, which gets supply from the cold chain at the divisional level. The districts get the supply based on the number of vaccination centres, which are finalised on the number of beneficiaries based on the population. A centralised system gets real-time data of the usage of the vials and on the basis of the potential number of eligible citizens, further stock is provided. The distribution of the stock is also done on the basis of the available stock, state officials said.

The stock is supplied to the divisional/district/city level cold chains on the basis of availability at the state level and the requirement at lower level. The supply chain works in pyramid system. State level centre is at the apex, while the sub-centre level is at the bottom.