Maharashtra allows Covid-19 vaccination centres to run 24x7. But there’s a catch

Maharashtra’s health department secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas told PTI the approval by the state government is an ‘in-principle nod’ for keeping the vaccination centres open throughout.

The Maharashtra government on Thursday allowed coronavirus disease (Covid-19) vaccination centres across the state to operate round the clock with a view to speeding up the inoculation drive, according to news agency PTI. However, this will be applicable to only those centres which have sufficient staff, senior officials said.

Maharashtra started its vaccination drive on January 16 and has administered more than two million vaccine doses till now, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s update. (Punit Paranjpe / AFP)

Maharashtra’s health department secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas told PTI the approval by the state government is an ‘in-principle nod’ for keeping the vaccination centres open throughout. “It is up to the medical facilities, depending upon the availability of staff, to decide on the number of hours to carry out the vaccination,” Vyas added. (Brought this up)

Maharashtra started its vaccination drive on January 16 and has administered more than two million vaccine doses till now, according to the Union ministry of health and family welfare’s update. The beneficiaries at present comprise healthcare and frontline workers, people above the age of 60 and those between the ages of 45-59 with specific co-morbidities.

Meanwhile, a health official of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) alleged that some people were coming up with fake certificates to show that they were eligible to take the vaccine shot. “We found some people in their late 40s who came up with fake medical certificates of co-morbidities to get the vaccine. When we asked them to describe their illness, we found they were lying. It is unfortunate,” the BMC official told PTI.

Maharashtra’s Covid-19 caseload is nearing 2.26 million with 52,610 deaths, 2,099,207 recoveries and 99,008 active infections. The state’s daily cases have been on the rise since the second week of February. On Wednesday, 13,659 fresh Covid-19 cases were registered- which have been the highest in more than five months. The last time these many cases were seen in the state was on October 8, 2020, when there were 13,395 infections.

Districts such as Nagpur, Jalgaon, Amravati, Thane, Nashik etc have been placed under lockdown by their respective administrations to curb the recent surge in the cases. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Thursday that strict lockdown measures will be imposed in some areas of the state and the government would hold a special meeting with officials before releasing these measures. Thackeray added that the government had been requesting residents to adhere to all Covid-related norms such as wearing masks, ensuring physical distancing and moving out only when required.

(With PTI inputs)