Maha to launch week-long special vax drive from Oct 8

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra government has declared to launch “Mission Kavach Kundal”, a seven-day special campaign to boost its Covid-19 vaccination drive, starting October 8. It has set a target of vaccinating minimum 1.5 million people a day. It is also looking to prioritise covering the first doses of all citizens at the earliest. This will help reduce the severity of the Covid-19 infections even if the potential third wave hits the state, said state health minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday.

He also declared monetary assistance of ₹50,000 each to the kin of those who died due to Covid-19 infection during the pandemic.

The state government has made a provision of ₹700 crore for the same. The decision was taken, following the directives of the central government.

“The state government has decided to undertake a special drive to boost vaccination in Maharashtra. Between October 8 [Friday] and October 14, we will be holding ‘Mission Kavach Kundal’, under which the state has set a target of administering 1.5 million doses a day at least. The drive will help us cover the citizens to get vaccinated in less time,” Tope told reporters on Thursday.

The most beneficiaries covered in a day in the state is 1.4 million. As many as 1,439,809 doses were vaccinated on September 8.

According to the statistics provided by the state health department, the targeted population for vaccination in Maharashtra

is 91.5 million. Of them, 60 million have been covered with first dose and 31.5 million is yet to be vaccinated, while those fully vaccinated are 25 million.

“If we could give priority for

SATISH BATE/HT A prayer service at Mount Mary Church, in Bandra. Six months after places of worship were closed on account of the rising number of Covid cases in the second wave of the pandemic, devotees across religions were able to offer their prayers. Prominent places of worship like Mumbadevi Mandir, Siddhivinayak temple, Mahim Church as well as both Mahim and Haji Ali dargahs saw huge crowds of devotees, even as the institutions adopted strict Covid-19 guidelines to prevent crowding and maintain physical distancing.