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People crowd at the Dadar vegetables market which is allowed to open 7-11 am, in Mumbai.
The Maharashtra government will vaccinate all its citizens free of cost, State Minister Nawab Malik announced on Sunday. A massive vaccination drive is already underway in the country whereas from May 1, all those above 18 years in age will be eligble to get vaccine shots. India is currently battling the second wave of coronavirus with daily cases touching nearly 3.5 lakh mark.
Fatality rate drops in Maharashtra
Maharashtra s Covid-19 death toll fell on Saturday even as the state s case tally zoomed past the 42 lakh-mark, with an increase in the number of active cases, health officials said.
Representative image
MUMBAI: Vaccination for all above 45 years began on a high note as the state and the city registered record turnouts on Thursday, giving a much-needed nudge to a drive that was losing steam.
Maharashtra recorded over 3lakh vaccinations while Mumbai breached 55,000, the highest in a single day for both. In Mumbai, over 37,000 from 45 to 59 years got vaccinated, a significant jump from the ,000-5,000 from the same age group with co-morbidities who were turning up.
Urging districts to prioritize immunisation in areas facing a surge in cases, principal health secretary Dr Pradeep Vyas said in a circular that field units must decide if they want to cover wards/villages sequentially or eligible groups in the shortest time. He asked districts to try and exhaust the recent vaccine consignment (of 26.77lakh doses) in 5-7 days by pushing daily vaccinations to 4lakh.
10 other vaccination centres have been functional since in Mumbai January 16.
The highest 829 healthcare workers were given vaccines at Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Hospital followed by 783 at Rajawadi Hospital and 679 at KEM Hospital, among other medical facilities.
The lowest number of 18 doses of
Covaxin was administered at state-run
JJ Hospital on Wednesday.
Barring JJ Hospital, at all other vaccination sites, Covishield is being administered to healthcare workers.
In the financial capital of the country, BMC said the number of vaccination booths have been increased to 77 from 65 earlier.
On the other hand, 47,470 health workers or 77 per cent of the targeted workers for the day were administered COVID-19 vaccine doses across 528 centres in Maharashtra on Wednesday. With this, a total of 1,78,371 health workers have been vaccinated so far.
DY Patil Hospital, Nerul
MUMBAI: The second day of Covid-19 vaccination in the state on Tuesday saw a lower turnout of healthcare workers opting for the shot, while Mumbai managed to log the same attendance (50%) as the first day on Saturday.
This happened despite the health authorities introducing friendly measures such as “walk-in appointments” (in Mumbai) and keeping booths open till 7pm. Moreover, glitches in the Co-WIN software resulted in fewer healthcare workers being called for the shots; at KEM Hospital, Parel, the daily target was reduced to 300 as against 500.
The statewide figure dropped from 64% on Day 1 to 52% on Tuesday, with 14,883 healthcare workers (out of 28,500) taking the shot. State health services head, Dr Archana Patil, however, refused to equate the low turnout with vaccine hesitancy. “One cannot deduce hesitancy based on the turnouts of just two days,” she said. Around 7.86 lakh healthcare workers, including 1.3 lakh in Mumbai, are scheduled to