Maharashtra sees rise in vaccinations with 288,581 beneficiaries on Monday

A day after clocking around 110,000 vaccinations, the Covid-19 immunisation drive in Maharashtra saw a slight improvement with 288,581 beneficiaries getting inoculated on Monday across 4,404 centres in the state

A day after clocking around 110,000 vaccinations, the Covid-19 immunisation drive in Maharashtra saw a slight improvement with 288,581 beneficiaries getting inoculated on Monday across 4,404 centres in the state. So far, the state has vaccinated 18,374,452 beneficiaries and 3,489,266 of them have received both the doses. In the past one month, the state has administered over 8.1 million doses.

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However, the state government has a vaccine stock that would last only for the next two to three days, officials said. A state health department official who did not wish to be named said, “We have received stock in the weekend that has allowed us to continue the vaccination drive. Our vaccination drive will continue on a slow pace for want of enough doses. We are expecting another batch of vaccine from the Centre during the week to allow us to continue vaccination across all centres.”

In case of failing to get more doses from the Centre, the state could reduce the number of active vaccination centres. “Looking at our speed, the Centre ought to send us 1.5 to 2 million doses in a week, but it is not happening. We received a little over 700,000 doses in the weekend. After Monday, there would be around 350,000 to 400,000 vaccines remaining, which will suffice for two or three days,” the officer added.

Meanwhile, the state is still awaiting the stock of Covaxin from the Centre even as nearly 550,000 people in the state are due for the second shot of the Bharat Biotech vaccine. The state government has written to Centre seeking Covaxin and has received a meagre 36,000 doses. “Despite following up with the Centre, they are not giving us Covaxin for people aged over 45 years. It is their responsibility to provide it. People are getting agitated. I will again speak to the Union health minister over this,” said Rajesh Tope, state health minister.

Officials added that the state government will decide to divert its stock of Covaxin to inoculate the people who are yet to take their second shot.

Tope also said that the state government will decide on the categorisation of the 18-44 age group this week. The state is expected to give priority to people between the age of 35 and 44, with preference to people with comorbidities. “The plan for categorisation will be ready within this week. We will add criteria such as comorbidities,” Tope said.

He further added that they intend to start vaccination of 18-44 age group on their app, but so far they have not received a go-ahead from the Centre to create a new app for the state. Officials added that one option before the state is to start offline vaccination. However, officials are wary to start offline vaccination of such a large group.

Offline vaccination could also require a go-ahead from the Centre. When asked if the state plans to write to Centre seeking permission to allow offline vaccination of 18-44 group, Tope said, “We can do offline, but the issue is that keeping a record is a major issue. We have to record each vaccination properly.”