E-Paper
Amidst lower demand, Maharashtra to get 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses in Nov
The Maharashtra government is likely to get at least 20 million Covid-19 vaccine doses from the Centre for the vaccination drive, despite the lower demand
PUNE The state government is likely to get at least 20 million Covid-19 doses from the Centre for the vaccination drive, despite the lower demand, as many have shown a hesitancy in taking the second dose after second wave has waned.
Even though there has been a steady supply of the vaccine, demand has gone down drastically since October, mainly due to the mandatory 84-day gap between two doses and the drop in Covid-19 cases.
The state has about seven million doses pending to be administered from the October stock, officials said.
Dr Sachin Desai, state immunisation officer said, “We are likely to get about 20 million doses of the vaccine this month and we have about 7 million pending as part of October’s stock.”
In October, Maharashtra received 20 million doses of the Serum Institute manufactured Covishield and the Bharat Biotech produced Covaxin.
Earlier on Sunday, chief minister Uddhav Thackeray expressed a concern over the slow pace of anti-Covid inoculation in Maharashtra, saying he will take up the issue of vaccine shortages with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The chief minister also addressed the issue of vaccine hesitancy and urged more people to shed their inhibitions and get vaccinated.
“Let us first focus on the task at hand, that is to get more and more people vaccinated and boost the health infrastructure in the state,” the CM had said while speaking informally to journalists in Mumbai, when asked about about his government’s long-term plan to contain the pandemic.
According to Desai, the health department is supplying doses on demand to districts. “As of now the availability of vaccines is not at all the problem. We are supplying as many vaccines as is being demanded by the district administrations in the state. We are conducting massive Information, Education and Communication (IEC) programmes to educate people of the need to be fully vaccinated rather than just take one dose. Even smaller districts are getting a smooth supply of the vaccines because we have distributed the stock to regional centres to decentralise the process,” said Desai.
Until October 31, the state has administered a total of 98.17 million doses, including both first and second doses, to all the categories of beneficiaries. Of these a majority of the chunk has been supplied to Mumbai district (island and suburban), 14.67 million doses, 12.10 million doses to Pune district and Thane with 8.23 million doses. Maharashtra has been administering the highest doses of vaccines among all the states in the country.
PMC increases second-dose quota
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has upped its quota for the second dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to 90%, as the demand for the first dose of vaccination has gone down in the city. Earlier, the second dose quota was 60%, which is now increased to 90%. In Pune city, over 105% people 18-144 age group have been vaccinated with the first dose.
