Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that they do not have enough COVID-19 vaccine doses at various vaccination centres. The remarks came at a time when the state is witnessing a rapid rise in coronavirus cases.
"We do not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres, and people have to be sent back due to a shortage of doses. We are working on war footing to increase the number of beds in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik and other parts of the state," Tope said, ANI reported.
The minister alleged that the delivery of the vaccine is slow. "Currently, we have 14 lakh vaccine doses which will get over in three 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.
Mumbai Mayor Kishori Pednekar also raised the issue saying, "There is a shortage of COVID-19 vaccine doses in Mumbai. Yesterday, we had 1,76,000 vaccine doses but in the coming days we will require more vaccines."
The state health minister has also asked the Centre to relax the age criteria in vaccination. "We have demanded from the Centre that people of age group 20-40 years must be vaccinated on priority," Tope said.
Maharashtra has on Tuesday reported 55,469 fresh coronavirus positive cases, the second-highest spike in the last two days, taking the tally of infections to 31,13,354 while 297 deaths pushed the toll to 56,330, the state health department said. Maharashtra is now left with 4,72,283 active cases.
Mumbai recorded 10,040 new cases and 32 deaths. At the same time, 34,256 people were discharged on Tuesday, taking the count of the recoveries in the state to 25,83,331, the department said in a release.
The state's recovery rate now stands at 82.98 percent and the fatality rate is 1.81 percent. Maharashtra had reported the highest spike in daily cases on Sunday, when it added over 57,000 infections.
With 2,01,693 new tests, the number of samples tested so far in Maharashtra has gone up to 2,09,17,486, it said.
First Published: Apr 7, 2021 1:01 PM IST
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