Covid vaccine: Maharashtra waits for Centre’s plan amid cost doubts

Chief secretary Sanjay Kumar said they are assuming that vaccines for health workers and frontline workers will be free, but they don’t know what is going to happen later.

Maharashtra is waiting for the Centre to roll out its Covid-19 vaccination programme plan after the Drugs Controller General of India (DGCI) on Sunday approved emergency use of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and Bharat Biotech vaccines. While the state has already prepared its plan to vaccinate over 30 million people in the first three phases, however, it is not yet clear whether the vaccine will be free for all.

Satyabrata Tripathy/HT Photo

Chief secretary Sanjay Kumar said they are assuming that vaccines for health workers and frontline workers will be free, but they don’t know what is going to happen later.

Dr Shashank Joshi, member of the state vaccination task force, said the first person in the country is likely to be vaccinated between January 7 and 14, but doesn’t know when Maharashtra will be able to get the stock.

Meanwhile, the state on Sunday recorded 3,282 cases, the 18th day of fewer than 4,000 cases, pushing the count to 1,942,136. The toll reached 49,666 after 35 casualties were reported, of which 20 were in the past 48 hours, five were in the past week and the remaining 10 deaths were from before last week, health officials said.

“We have completed our preparations. Priority of people has been set by the Centre, according to which health workers, frontline workers and later people with comorbidities will be given [vaccine] shots. We have also completed registration of both health workers and frontline workers, infrastructure is ready and staff has been trained. We have also completed a mock drill now,” the chief secretary said.

We are assuming the vaccine is going to be free for heath and frontline workers, but when it comes to the general public, we are awaiting clarity from the Centre,” he added.

Dr Joshi said, “Maharashtra will have to await further instructions from the Central government. The Centre will be procuring them first, which is likely to happen from next week. After that, they will be distributing the stock among various states. Then, according to the plan made by the Centre, the first group to be vaccinated will be health workers, then followed by frontline workers. The state government will have to work in close coordination with the Central government for both procurement as well as its distribution to various vaccination points and administering it to the first group of people.”

According to Dr Joshi, DGCI has made three observations first, the approved vaccine of Serum Institute of India for emergency use. Second, Bharat Biotech’s vaccine has been approved for clinical trials, which will not be based on double blind study. Now people will be given actual shots during the trial and everyone will be monitored post vaccination. Third one is, Zydus Cadila vaccine, which also got approval for phase 3 trial. “It means, in all probability, Covishield will be the first vaccine to be used for starting the first phase. I am expecting that the first person to get vaccinated will be between January 7-14, but when Maharashtra is going to get the stock is yet to be cleared.

State health minister Rajesh Tope said the state administration is fully prepared and they are waiting for the Centre’s plan for the vaccination drive.

“We are waiting for a communication from the Centre on the vaccination programme. The approval for Serum Institute of India’s vaccine is only for emergency use and is also subject to the consent of the patient, which means no one else would be held responsible for any health complications, if any, post vaccination,” Tope said.

According to the state’s plan, the vaccination drive is going to be held in three phases meant for priority groups — health workers; frontline workers; people above 50 years of age and those with comorbidities below the age of 50. Of total, 8 lakh, around 7,58,000 health workers from the private and public sector have been registered.

Mumbai has clocked 581 cases on Sunday, taking the count to 295,241. Of them, active cases are 8,961. The city has reported only three deaths, which is the lowest single-day toll since March 30. The toll has reached 11,135.

None of the international passengers who have arrived in Maharashtra are yet to be found infected with the new coronavirus strain found in the United Kingdom (UK). Till Sunday, 70 passengers who arrived in Maharashtra from the UK between November 25 and December 22 tested positive to Covid-19, but it is yet to be confirmed if any of them carry the new, more transmissible strain of Covid-19. The state government is expecting a few reports from the National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune by Monday.

“4,820 UK returnees who had landed between November 15 and December 23 have been traced till date. RT-PCR tests have been conducted on 3,374 of them 70 samples were found positive. We are expecting some report from NIV on Monday,” said state surveillance office Dr Pradip Awate.

Of them, 30 are from Mumbai, Pune (13), Thane (8), Nagpur (9), 2 each from Nashik, Aurangabad, Raigad, Buldhana and one each from Nanded and Washim.

He said that 64 samples have been referred to the NIV, Pune to ascertain if they are infected with the new variant.

The state government has put the administration on alert after discovery of a new mutant strain of Covid-19 that is believed to be much more infectious than all previous strains. It has started a special drive to trace and conduct tests of all those that came from the UK between November 15 and December 23. Further, it is sending the samples of those who have tested positive to NIV, Pune to ascertain the type of virus they are infected with.

It has also started contact tracing and testing of those UK returnees who have tested positive.

“We have traced 448 people who have come in contact with the UK returnees found positive for Covid-19 and 30 of them have tested positive,” Dr Awate said.