Maharashtra 1st state to administer 20 million Covid-19 doses; Mumbai to resume drive today

Maharashtra became the first state in the country to cross the landmark of administering 20 million vaccine doses on Monday, since the drive commenced on January 16

Maharashtra became the first state in the country to cross the landmark of administering 20 million vaccine doses on Monday, since the drive commenced on January 16.

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Additional chief secretary (health department) Pradeep Vyas has confirmed the development.

Amid the depleting vaccine stock, the state administered 99,323 doses till 9pm on Monday, pushing the tally to 20,089,580. The state has so far fully vaccinated 4,256,962 beneficiaries.

Mumbai, Pune and Thane are the leading districts that have administered the highest number of doses. Mumbai has administered 2,892,457 so far, of which 731,904 are second doses, while Pune district has given 2,617,059 doses of vaccines, of which 544,902 are second shots. In Thane district, 347,710 beneficiaries are fully vaccinated, followed by 261,138 in Nagpur, 216,998 at Kolhapur and 199,985 beneficiaries in Nashik district.

According to senior health department officials, Maharashtra is expecting fresh stock of doses from the Centre. “We are expecting the stock by tomorrow [Tuesday],” said state immunisation officer DN Patil, adding that the state, however, does not know how many doses it will receive.

Health department officials said that the current stock would last only for about a day or two.

“We have about 300,000 Covishield doses and around 80,000 Covaxin vaccines distributed across the state. Due to the cyclone alert, the vaccination drive was not in full swing in many coastal districts, including Mumbai. The current stock will last us for about a day or two,” a senior official said.

Patil added that with the increase in the interval between the two doses of Covishield, the pressure on the administration has reduced.

“However, our focus is now to vaccinate more people as and when we receive the stock,” he said.

On Monday, the Mumbai civic body had suspended vaccinations in view of predictions of heavy rainfall and gusty winds due to cyclone Tauktae. Mumbai will restart its vaccination drive on Tuesday. However, vaccinations will resume only at selected centres, a list of which will be published by the civic body.

Walk-in registrations for senior citizens getting their first dose will be permitted, however they will only be administered Covishield vaccine. Citizens aged above 45 who are getting their second dose of Covaxin as well as for the differently abled citizens can also walk into their nearest vaccination centre, get registered on the spot and get vaccinated, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

On Thursday, Friday and Saturday this week, only those who have registered on the CoWIN app can get their vaccine shots.

“Vaccination to resume at selected centres on 18 & 19 May’21. The list of CVCs for tomorrow shall be uploaded later tonight. Walk-in for 60+ taking their 1st dose of Covishield while 84 days to be completed after 1st dose of Covishield’s second (sic),” the civic body tweeted on Monday evening.

There are currently 260 vaccination centres across the city, of which 166 are operated by the civic body, 74 are private and 20 are operated by the state or central governments.

Meanwhile, the senior health department official said that the government could take a call on resumption of the vaccination of citizens in the 18-44 age group later this week. “Serum [Institute of India] had assured state of giving 1.5 crore [Covishield] vaccines every month after May 20. If that is honoured, then the government will restart it by this month end or in June,” he said.

(Inputs from Eeshanpriya MS)