Maharashtra: 70% of target population covered with first Covid-19 vaccine dose

Amid the country crossing the one billion mark for Covid-19 vaccine doses, Maharashtra has administered over 93 million doses till date

Amid the country crossing the one billion mark for Covid-19 vaccine doses, Maharashtra has administered over 93 million doses till date. Maharashtra tops the charts, in terms of fully vaccinated population, although it holds the second position when it comes to total number of doses administered, after Uttar Pradesh.

Amid the country crossing the one billion mark for Covid-19 vaccine doses, Maharashtra has administered over 93 million doses till date (SATISH BATE/HT)

Of the targeted population of 91.5 million, 70% or 64,913,396 people, have been given the first dose, while 29,065,236 beneficiaries in the state are fully vaccinated in the state. The state has administered 93,978,623 doses till date, according to the data on Co-Win portal. On Thursday, the state administered 516,519 doses.

Maharashtra’s public health minister Rajesh Tope said that covering the rest of the targeted population will be a challenge as they require counselling sessions to convince them for vaccination. To facilitated speedy vaccination, the state government is starting a drive to cover all college students in the age group of 18-25 by organising sessions on college campuses. The drive will be undertaken for 10 days, from October 25 to November 3.

“We are proud to be a major contributor in the achievement of one-billion mark. We are lagging behind UP in overall inoculation because the northern state was provided with more doses on the basis of their population,’ the minister said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra recorded 1,573 fresh infections, pushing the count to 6,598,218 on Thursday. The tally of active cases further reduced to 24,292 as 2,968 recoveries were reported in the past 24 hours.

It also saw 39 casualties and the total number of fatalities stood at 139,925. Pune reported the highest deaths of 12 people. Of them, five in the city and seven in the rural parts of the district.

The gradual drop in the daily caseload over the past five months has enabled the state to relax Covid-19 pandemic curbs. Cinema halls, theatres and multiplexes are set to reopen in Maharashtra after six months with 50% capacity from Friday. From October 4, schools in urban areas were reopened for Class 8 to 12 and rural areas for classes 5 to 7. All religious places reopened on October 7. The state has also extended timings of all restaurants and eateries till 12am midnight and other establishments till 11 pm in the backdrop of the upcoming Diwali festival.

However, there is a word of caution by the authorities, warning of a potential spike in cases after Diwali due to relaxations and festivals. “We have removed most of the curbs and now Diwali is approaching. People are coming out freely, meetings and gatherings are happening, they are also visiting religious places. In this backdrop to keep the spread under control, vaccination is the only solution,” the health minister said.

He also informed that they have not found any new variant in the state as of now. “We have been sending positive samples for genome sequencing for detection of any new variant if any but no new variant has found as of now, which is a big sigh of relief for all of us. If we follow all the Covid protocols and speed up vaccination, then we will be in a situation where we can live with the virus,” he added.

To cover over three million college students, the state is set to launch a drive named ‘Mission Yuva Swasth’. Under this drive, it has planned to organise vaccination sessions at most of the college campuses and cover all the students who are not vaccinated or partially vaccinated and are eligible for the second dose. The state health department has sought a list of colleges and educational institutions including private universities, autonomous institutes and medical colleges with vaccination details of the students and where vaccination sessions can be organized.

Tope said that the department has assured them to provide the list in the next two-three days, based on which the entire drive will be planned and executed. “There are around 5,000 institutions, covering over 3.2 million to 3.3 million students, which come under higher and technical education department, that we are looking to cover till November 3,” he said.

Mumbai reported 427 cases on Thursday, taking the tally to 753,233 It also recorded five fatalities taking the toll to 16,197.

In the last 24 hours, the state tested 123,700 samples and had a positivity rate of 1.27%. However, the overall positivity rate of the state stands at 10.73%.