Maha receives 300,000 vax doses from Centre
MUMBAI: Maharashtra on Tuesday received a stock of 300,000 doses from the Central government, allowing it to continue its vaccination drive for those aged 45 years and above for a few more days. However, the drive will have to be limited, officials said. The state inoculated 104,313 beneficiaries on Tuesday, according to Co-win portal.
For the past two days, the state was inoculating less than 100,000 beneficiaries, as the state had limited stock till Monday. On May 16 and 17, the state administered doses to 68,800 and 99,699 beneficiaries, respectively. It has already suspended the vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group and diverted 310,000 doses of Covaxin for the second dose for those above 45 years of age last week. “We have received 200,000 doses of Covishield and 100,000 doses of Covaxin today,” confirmed Dr Archana Patil, director, Directorate Of Health Services.
On April 26, the state set a record of inoculating 534,228 beneficiaries in a day. On Monday, it became the first state to cover 20 million beneficiaries across the country. In all, the state has covered total 20,200,747 beneficiaries till Tuesday, according to the Co-win portal.
“Till Monday, we were left with only 380,000 doses (300,000 Covishield and 80,000 Covaxin) that were distributed across the state. Today, we have received another stock of 300,000 of doses but as we don’t know when the next stock is going to come, we will have to continue the drive in the restricted manner,” said a senior official, requesting anonymity.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare said it will provide 19.99 million doses of Covishield and Covaxin from
May 16-31 to all the states and union territories for free. This includes 16.25 million doses of Covishield and 2.949 million doses of Covaxin, stated a release of ministry of health and family welfare issued on May 14. However, it did not mention a detailed bifurcation of allocation to the states.
“The delivery schedule for this allocation will be shared in advance,” it added.