Maharashtra CM to Centre: Give Covid vaccine everyone over 45

The state also recorded 23,179 fresh Covid-19 cases, first in excess of 20,000 since September 26 (20,419 cases) and highest one-day spike since September 17 (24,619 cases), taking the tally to 2,370,507

Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray on Wednesday requested the Centre to start Covid-19 vaccination for all citizens above 45 years of age to check the spread of the pandemic. He also wanted the state’s supply of vaccines be increased to 2 million doses a week, among other demands made during a meeting of chief ministers of all states and Union territories with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday.

(PRAFUL GANGURDE/HT)

The state also recorded 23,179 fresh Covid-19 cases, first in excess of 20,000 since September 26 (20,419 cases) and highest one-day spike since September 17 (24,619 cases), taking the tally to 2,370,507. September 17’s daily caseload was the peak of the first wave of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra.

On Wednesday, Thackeray said that looking at the large number of young people getting infected, people above 45 years must be allowed to get vaccinated, even if they do not have comorbidities. “Keeping in mind that there is a young population among those getting infected, people above the age of 45, irrespective of comorbidities, should get vaccinated,” Thackeray said in the meeting with Modi.

The state government has now targeted to ramp up its vaccination drive to 300,000 beneficiaries daily—more than double its current average of 138,957 per day. “Several private hospitals have come forward and registered themselves, but they will be allowed to operate, looking at their overall preparedness, Efforts will be made to take the daily vaccination to 300,000,” Thackeray said, according to a statement from the chief minister’s office (CMO).

Responding to Union minister Prakash Javadekar’s charge that the Maharashtra government was mismanaging the vaccination drive, state health minister Rajesh Tope said the state has vaccine stock that would last 10 days. Tope said that he had apprised union health minister Dr Harsh Vardhan and health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday of its stock availability based on its current trend of daily vaccination. The vaccination issue could become the latest friction point between the Centre and the state.

Javadekar claimed that the Shiv Sena MPs were asking the Centre for more vaccines, while the state has only utilised 44% of what has already been delivered. In a tweet on Thursday the Union minister said, “The Maharashtra government had only used 23 lakh vaccines out of the total 54 lakh vaccines sent to the state, till 12th March. 56% vaccines remained unused. Now, Shiv Sena MP asks for more vaccines for the state. First, mismanagement of pandemic, now poor administration of vaccines.”

Responding to the claim, Tope said, “One union minister tweeted that we still have 31 lakh vaccines available. As per our target of 300,000 vaccinations a day, we only have vaccine stock that will last 10 days. I have told this to Rajesh Bhushan. Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, too, has told this to the prime minister in today’s video conference meeting.”

According to the CMO, the state has 3,138,643 doses available with itself. Till March 16, Maharashtra has inoculated 3,365,952 beneficiaries, including healthcare workers, frontline workers, senior citizens and people between age groups 45 and 59 with comorbidities.

The state sought inclusion of 50-bedded private hospitals as vaccine centres to speed up its vaccination drive. Tope said they have requested the Centre to relax the conditions laid down for a hospital to be eligible to become a vaccination centre. Tope said that they have asked the Centre to revise its policy and reduce the criteria from 100-bed hospitals to 50-bed ones, which could be allowed to give vaccines.

“We have sought relaxation in the condition that only 100-bed private hospitals can be allowed to give vaccines. They should, at least, reduce 50-bed hospitals. Ultimately, adequate space is required for vaccination, proper cold storage facility and means to tackle cases if there are any adverse effects following immunisation. If these parameters are fulfilled by either 50-bed or 20-bed hospital, then it should be allowed to give vaccines. We hope this is accepted,” Tope told reporters in Mumbai. The minister added that the health department will give “zero wastage” target to all vaccination centres in the state to achieve least amount of vaccine wastage.

Besides that, Thackeray also requested the Centre to allow its Mumbai-based Haffkine Bio Pharmaceutical Corporation Limited to manufacture Covaxin in association with Bharat Biotech.

The chief minister said that the state-owned research institute in Mumbai should be allowed to attain vaccine technology from Bharat Biotech or it can be allowed to work on a “fill-and-finish’ basis. Thackeray, according to a statement from the CMO, said that the state can produce 126 million vaccines though Haffkine.

Haffkine is a public-sector undertaking owned by the state government and has developed a number of vaccines that include anti-rabies serum, anti-venom serum, oral polio vaccine etc.

Tope, while speaking to reporters said, “We have demanded that the technology transfer from Bharat Biotech [which manufactured Covaxin] can be done to Haffkine Institute. We have two options; firstly, either we can manufacture it on our own or they provide technology and we use our space and equipment and we do it on a fill-and-finish basis. The prime minister is positive about it. If this is accepted, then we are definitely going to put a condition that Maharashtra should get 25% of the product in lieu of its capital input of land and equipment.”

In the meeting, the chief minister said that contact tracing has become a challenge as all activities are open and the movement of people has increased. Then, too, the contact-tracing will be done on “war-footing”. Thackeray added that the Centre has expressed satisfaction in the number of vaccination and RT-PCT tests the state carries out in a day. He said Maharashtra is well above other state in terms of RT-PCT tests, which should be 70% of the total tests carried out to detect coronavirus cases. The statement from the CMO said, “The health secretary during a presentation said that Maharashtra’s performance with regards to vaccination is satisfactory. The daily average inoculation carried out 138,957, which is better than some leading states.”

The vaccination drive in the state has picked up after the senior citizens and people between 45-59 age bracket were eligible to get a jab. The state government, according to a health department official, said that they will be able to touch higher daily targets on a daily basis. “On March 16, we achieved target of 232,340 vaccination which is much higher than our average. The average seems low because we had a slow start to our drive. It is picking up. Soon, we will hit the desired target of 300,000,” he said requesting anonymity.