Maha Health Minister warns Centre over shortage of Covid-19 vaccines in State

Amid the massive surge in COVID cases, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope claimed that the state might have to stop its COVID-19 immunisation drive after a few days due to the shortage of vaccine doses. As per the minister, Maharashtra needs 40 lakh more vaccine doses and because of the delivery speed, they might run out of the vaccines in the coming days.

"Currently, we have 14 lakh vaccine doses which will get over in 3 days. We've asked for 40 lakh more vaccine doses per week. I'm not saying that the Center is not giving us vaccines but the speed of delivery of vaccines is slow," Tope said.

Maha Health minister opined as the state does not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres people have to be sent back due to a shortage of doses. He also requested the government vaccinate people of age group 20-40 years on priority as they were getting mostly getting infected during the second phase.

Tope further added that the state government is working on war footing to increase the number of hospital beds in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik and other parts.

"12 metric tonnes of oxygen is produced & over 7 tonnes of oxygen is consumed daily. We've demanded that we should be supplied medical oxygen from nearby states. If needed, we'll close down industries that use oxygen but won't let the supply of medical oxygen be affected," he said.

Maharashtra Vaccination

For the last few days, the state has been vaccinating about four lakh people daily. Nearly 82 lakh people have been vaccinated so far in Maharashtra since the roll-out of the inoculation drive. An official statement on Tuesday said Maharashtra had received 1.06 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, out of which 88 lakh doses have been used while the wastage stood at three per cent. It said the state government will vigorously pursue its demand for more stock of vaccine doses, considering the rapid rise in the COVID-19 cases and expansion of the vaccination drive.

Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow people above 25 years to receive COVID-19 shots, which he said will protect the young people from the rapid spread of the viral infection at a time when they are stepping outside their homes to earn a livelihood.

COVID-19 Cases in Maharashtra 

As per the Union Health Ministry, the active cases of COVID-19 in Maharashtra have increased to 4,73,693 with 25,83,331 patients discharged taking the death toll to 56,330. In the last 24 hours, 20,916 new active cases were recorded with 34256 discharges and 297 deaths.

COVID-19 Cases in India

As per the Union Health Ministry, India reports 1,15,736 new COVID-19 cases, 59,856 discharges, and 630 deaths in the last 24 hours.

• Total cases: 1,28,01,785
• Total recoveries: 1,17,92,135
• Active cases: 8,43,473
• Death toll: 1,66,177
• Total vaccination: 8,70,77,474

(Image Credits: ANI/Piaxabay/PTI)