Maharashtra administers close to a million Covid-19 vaccine doses in a day

Maharashtra on Saturday recorded its highest single-day figure for Covid-19 vaccine doses — 961,495, as of 11.30pm.

Maharashtra on Saturday recorded its highest single-day figure for Covid-19 vaccine doses — 961,495, as of 11.30pm. The total doses administered have reached 49,176,203. A total of 12,807,025 citizens are fully vaccinated, data revealed.

The state government has been complaining that the Central government was providing insufficient doses. (Bhushan Koyande/ HT)

State health minister Rajesh Tope said this showed that Maharashtra can administer one million doses daily. “Vaccination is the only weapon to contain Covid-19 and if we get regular supply of doses, we will be able to do such mass vaccinations,” said Tope. “Today [Saturday], we have proved that we can undertake vaccination of at least 10 lakh people in a day,” he added.

The previous highest was on July 3 when around 811,000 doses were administered.

The Maharashtra assembly even passed a resolution demanding at least 30 million doses per month. The state government has been complaining that the Central government was providing insufficient doses.

This has resulted in an erratic vaccination drive with authorities suspending the drive on some days. Now with the railways allowing only fully vaccinated people to travel, there has been a rush of people seeking vaccines.

Dr Ameet Mandot, director, Gut Clinic, said large-scale vaccination is the need of the hour. “Vaccines reduce the severity of the virus and it is necessary to save lives. We need to increase the pace further,” said Dr Mandot.

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