Maharashtra's vaccination drive: 3 crore people fully inoculated against COVID-19

As India administered over a billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines, Maharashtra achieved a milestone with over 3 crore population fully vaccinated against Coronavirus infections on Sunday, October 24. The Chief Minister's office on Tuesday, October 26, informed that Maharashtra is the only state in the country to have administered 3 crore vaccine doses. 

The CMO Maharashtra said in a tweet, "Maharashtra has completed the 3 crore stage of fully vaccinated citizens today. This is a great victory for our health system and I am very proud of this victory as the head of the family. We will soon achieve the goal of vaccinating the whole of Maharashtra".

COVID-19 situation in Maharashtra

According to the health bulletin, on October 26, Maharashtra reported 1,201 new COVID-19 cases, taking the tally to 66,05,051. The total number of COVID deaths in the state is at 1,40,060 with 32 fresh fatalities. While 1,370 COVID patients were discharged from hospitals in the last 24hours, and so the total number of recoveries in the state is 64,38,395.

While on October 25, the Bombay High Court warned the state of a rise in active COVID-19 cases as people have forgotten to follow COVID-related protocols after receiving the jab. A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice GS Kulkarni was hearing a PIL filed against the Maharashtra government by activist Feroze Mithiborwala over the decision to permit only fully vaccinated persons to travel on Mumbai local trains. He stated that this directive was a violation of the fundamental right to equality guaranteed under Article 14 of the Constitution.

COVID vaccination in India

In a major milestone achievement, India has administered over a billion COVID-19 vaccines doses, becoming the second nation in the world to do so. The first dose of vaccine is received by almost 700 million Indians and about 291 million are administered with both doses. In line with India’s revised vaccination strategy, the time between Covishield shots from four weeks to 12, was a big factor in boosting the vaccinated population. The Indian brand of the AstraZeneca vaccine, Covishield, accounts for more than 90% of these shots. On the global level, India has administered 15 per cent of the total doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

To date, India has administered 1,03,57,16,705 COVID vaccine doses across 58,731 vaccination site. 

(Image: PTI/REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE)