Maha to resume vaccination for 45+

After three days of vaccinating fewer than 100,000 adults, including the newly-added category of 18-44 years, Maharashtra received 900,000 doses of vaccines on Tuesday afternoon from the Centre and is set to resume its vaccination for 45 years and above starting today

After three days of vaccinating fewer than 100,000 adults, including the newly-added category of 18-44 years, Maharashtra received 900,000 doses of vaccines on Tuesday afternoon from the Centre and is set to resume its vaccination for 45 years and above starting today.

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“Till Monday we were left with only 25,000 to 30,000 doses under the national vaccination drive being run by the Centre for 45 years and above population and hence most of the centres were shut. This is despite Maharashtra’s capacity of vaccinating up to 800,000 beneficiaries a day. Only this afternoon, we have got around 900,000 doses of Covishield from the Centre, which will now be distributed across districts to resume the drive again,” said state health minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday.

Maharashtra also hit a milestone of administering the first jab of 100,000 beneficiaries in the 18-44 age group whose vaccination began from May 1. The state has vaccinated 45% of the 45+ age group, since the inoculation began from April 1, the health minister said. “We have also covered 100,000 beneficiaries under the 18-44 age group in four days and covered 45% of the total population that comes under 45 years and above the age group. Till date, the state has vaccinated 16.5 million of beneficiaries from 45 years and above age group,” Tope said on Tuesday.

Maharashtra is also one the states with the lowest vaccine wastage in the country, according to figures released by the union ministry on Tuesday.

Out of the 16.36 million doses of vaccines supplied to state till date, its wastage was only 0.22%. Compared to Maharashtra, Haryana had a wastage rate of 5.72%, Assam of 7.7%, Lakshadweep of 9.71%, Tamil Nadu of 8.83%, Uttar Pradesh of 3.54% and Gujarat of 3.61%. The national vaccination drive was started on January 16 among priority categories which initially included health care and frontline workers and was extended to include senior citizens above 60 years.

In all, 2.4 million citizens have been vaccinated in Mumbai alone.

Several centres across the state were shut for the third day in a row causing worry among senior citizens who are up for their second jab of either Covishield or Covaxin. On Tuesday, only 26,944 were vaccinated in Mumbai, for instance. The state’s highest one-day inoculation figure was 534,228 doses, administered on April 26. Since then, its numbers have steadily dropped to 47,613 on May 2 and 78,759 on May 3, according to figures on the CoWIN portal.

According to a release issued by the ministry of health and family welfare on May 1, the state would receive 2,327,510 doses (1,750,620 of Covishield and 576,890 of Covaxin) from the Centre for the first fortnight in May.

In addition, it will receive 1.8 million doses from Serum Institute of India (which manufactures Covishield) and Bharat Biotech (which has made and produces Covaxin) and has received only 300,000, with which it was able to begin the third phase of the inoculation drive (18- 44 years) in a limited way (five centres in each district).

“We have also issued purchase orders of over 1.87 million doses (1,381,581 doses of Covishield and 489,150 of Covaxin) for this month for the drive started for 18-44 group. With 300,000 doses the drive was started on May 1 and district administrations have been asked to cover seven days with the existing stock. By that time, we are expecting to get the rest of the stock ordered by the state,” Tope said.

“As the stock is received, we immediately dispatch them to the respective districts so that the drive need not be discontinued. From tomorrow, the drive is expected to be resumed at most of the centres,” a senior official, privy to the development, said.

The government set a target of completing the drive for all adults in six months and wanted to procure 15 million every month but both the firms — SII and Bharat Biotech — have said that their production will increase in the next two months, after which the supply to the state will be more regular. “They have said that their production is expected to increase in June and July and they will be able to increase the supply of the state subsequently,” said a senior official, privy to the development.

Tope said, “The state government wants to buy the entire stock of 120 million doses in one go but are struggling to get the doses due to its unavailability in the market.”

Expanding the nationwide drive, the Centre threw open vaccination for all adults from May 1, asking the states to inoculate the 18-44 age group by procuring doses from the open market.

According to the state government figures, 60 million of its population comes under the age group of 18-44 and thus will require 120 million doses to get them immunized from the virus. It has already declared to provide free doses of the vaccine for all the adults at government run centres. The decision was taken in the state cabinet meeting held on Wednesday. For this, it has estimated a spending of ₹6,500 crore.

“Vaccination drive of the state got a setback as the Centre is unable to supply vaccines in adequate quantity. We had prepared and ramped up the drive to inoculate over 500,000 a day and wanted to increase it further but going by the supply getting from the Centre it may not happen in the near future,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.

Last month, union minister Prakash Javadekar had said that Maharashtra government was playing politics over the allotment of vaccine stock. “Maharashtra Govt should not play politics over vaccination. Here are the facts: Total number of COVID vaccine supplied to State till date - 1,06,19,190; Consumption - 90,53,523 (of which 6% wastage - over 5L) Vaccine in pipeline - 7,43,280. Dosage available - nearly 23 lakh,” he tweeted on April 7.

As per the Central government’s figures, Maharashtra’s wastage of vaccines – which could occur on account of multiple factors such as not having access to a beneficiary after a vial has been opened (once opened, vials need to be used immediately given the temperature requirements) – comes to 35,992 doses.

On Tuesday, Maharashtra Congress general secretary and spokesperson Sachin Sawant said that Javadekar should apologize for his earlier claims. “Javadekarji’s falsehood has been exposed by the central government’s press note as the wastage is not 6% and is just 0.22%. The union minister has insulted Maharashtra by spreading wrong information for the sake of politics,” he said.

BJP’s media cell chief Vishwas Pathak said, “Public health minister Rajesh Tope says that Maharashtra has trained manpower in healthcare sector, and they can ramp up daily inoculation to 1.2 million doses. Then why is there wastage of 600,000 doses? In percentage it may be less, but the wastage of such a huge stock when there was acute shortage, is not acceptable.”