Vaccination drive hit by shortage, most centres in Maharashtra closed

The Covid-19 vaccination drive in Maharashtra continued to suffer due to shortage of vaccine doses, forcing many centres to shut down

The Covid-19 vaccination drive in Maharashtra continued to suffer due to shortage of vaccine doses, forcing many centres to shut down.

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The state received 0.45 million doses on Friday night, but they are still to be transported to different parts, which is causing a problem. There has been a dip in vaccinations. On Friday, 272,421 people were vaccinated, compared to the 354, 027 on Thursday.

The state has been accusing the central government of discrimination, saying that it should have given more doses, considering the population size as well as the surge of Covid-19 cases in Maharashtra. However, deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar, after his meeting with Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar, said the situation will be normal in the coming days. “Javadekar has assured he will ensure enough doses for the state. The situation will come to normal in the coming days,” said Pawar. Javadekar said it was not time to play politics. “We will make all arrangements as we have to fight this virus unitedly,” said Javadekar.

There was a drop in the number of vaccination centres, as 2,881 centres were operational on Friday, compared to 3,647 on Thursday. The number of vaccinations administered on Saturday stood at 280,684 in 4,275 centres. The total number of vaccines administered is 9,921,170.

In Pune, there was controversy as mayor Murlidhar Mohol claimed that the central government had directly dispatched 0.24 million doses to Pune. This caused anger as Congress-NCP leaders called it a classic case of favouritism. However, then it later came to light that Mohol was referring to the doses given by the state. On Friday ,majority of the vaccination centres had closed down as the stock was exhausted. On Saturday, the situation was more or less the same.

In Panvel, the drive continued to be suspended due to lack of vaccines. A Panvel resident, 50-year old Kewal Karia, who had gone to take his second dose, returned home after he found his centre was closed and the board there announced that it is shut down due to non-availability of vaccines. “Why did they start vaccinating in the first place when they were not sure of the second dose for us,” rued Karia.

Union minister Nitin Gadkari asked the Serum Institute, one of the companies producing vaccines, to ramp up production.