Maharashtra govt to provide free COVID vaccine for 5.7 cr people between 18-45 age group

In a breaking development, the Maharashtra government has decided to provide free vaccines to 5.71 crore beneficiaries aged between 18-45 years as India gears up for the third phase of the inoculation drive from May 1. As per sources, the decision to provide free vaccines was taken at a cabinet meeting which was chaired by the CM on Wednesday. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope is expected to make a formal announcement about the same to the media later in the day. A total of 1,30,29,605 persons have been inoculated in Maharashtra till now, 22,90,190 of them have received the second dose of the vaccine too. 

On Tuesday, Deputy CM Ajit Pawar informed that Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray would take a decision pertaining to free vaccination for everyone. DyCM Pawar had further stated that he had signed a proposal for free vaccines, even as the decision will be taken by the Maharashtra Chief Minister. Apart from the impending decision of free vaccinations, the cabinet meeting was also to discuss the issue of a global tender for vaccine procurement for Maharashtra. Earlier, Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik had said that the government would make vaccines free for all above the age of 18.

Maharashtra's COVID situation

On Tuesday, April 27, Maharashtra recorded 66,358 novel coronavirus cases taking the State's COVID-19 tally to 44,10,085. At present, there are 6,72,434 active cases in the State. With 67,752 COVID-19 patients discharged in the day, the number of recovered soared to 36,69,548. In a heartening development, Mumbai too recorded only 4,014 new cases. 

895 deaths — 162 from Aurangabad, 74 from Pune, 63 each from Nashik and Nagpur, 59 from Mumbai, 47 from Ahmednagar, 32 from Osmanabad, 27 each from Akola and Yavatmal, 25 from Nanded, 24 from Solapur, 18 each from Kalyan Dombivali, Satara, Sangli and Bhandara, 17 from Amravati, 15 each from Raigad, Parbhani, Gadchiroli and Ratnagiri, 12 from Sindhudurg, 10 each from Navi Mumbai, Jalgaon, Beed and Washim, 8 each from Nandurbar and Chandrapur, 7 from Gondia, 6 each from Malegaon, Pimpri Chinchwad, Kolhapur and Buldhana, 5 each from Vasai Virar and Mira Bhayandar, 4 from Jalna, three from Panvel, two each from Bhiwandi and Akola and one each from Dhule and Thane were reported on Tuesday. Out of the total deaths reported in the day, 392 occurred in the last 48 hours, 179 in the last week, and 324 from the period before. Until now, a total of 66,179 persons in the state have died owing to COVID-19. 

So far, 2,62,54,737 samples have been tested for the novel coronavirus in labs operational across the state. While 42,64,936 persons are under home quarantine, 30,146 others have been admitted to institutional quarantine centres. The COVID-19 positivity rate, recovery rate, and fatality rate in Maharashtra stand at 16.8 per cent, 83.21 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.