Maharashtra facing shortage of COVID-19 vaccine, has enough for 3 days: Health Minister
Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that the state does not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres and people have to be sent back due to the shortage.
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FollowMaharashtra is running out of vaccines amid a surge in Covid-19 cases, the state’s Health Minister, Rajesh Tope, told the media on Wednesday.
Maharashtra continued to be the worst-hit state in India by the coronavirus pandemic. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that the state does not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres and people have to be sent back due to the shortage.
“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 have demanded from the Centre that people of age group 20-40 years must be vaccinated on priority”, Tope said.
According to the latest data, supply of Covid-19 vaccines to Maharashtra:
• Total supplied - 1,06,19,190
• In-pipeline - 7,43,280
• Consumption - 90,53,523
Maharashtra is the major contributor to the rising active caseload of the country. The state logged more than 55,000 fresh Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours on Tuesday.
Further commenting on the healthcare in the state reaching capacity, he said, ANI reported, “We are working on war footing to increase the number of beds in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik and other parts of the state.”
Detailing about the Covid-19 vaccine stock in the state, the health minister said the state currently has 14 lakh vaccine doses which will get consumed in over three days. Adding that the government has asked the Centre for 40 lakh additional doses per week he clarified that while the Centre is giving us vaccines, the speed of delivery is slow.
The Health Minister also said that currently, 12 metric tonnes of oxygen is being produced and over seven tonnes of oxygen is being consumed daily in the state. “We've demanded that we should be supplied medical oxygen from nearby states. If needed, we'll close down industries that use oxygen but won't let supply of medical oxygen be affected,” Tope said.
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