Mumbai: As many as 11,492 people in the 18-44 years age group were vaccinated against the novel coronavirus in Maharashtra on Saturday, the state public health department informed. Inoculation against COVID-19 for those above 18 started on Saturday. This come after the Union government last month decided to start the drive for the wider population. Vaccination for those above 45 is already underway.
Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Friday stated the state government will begin Phase 3 vaccination drive on May 1 for adults in the age group 18-44 years, even though it has a very limited stock of vaccines with it.
"Today we have received three lakh vaccine doses. From tomorrow, we will start inoculation for adults above the age of 18 years with whatever vaccine supply that is delivered to us," Uddhav Thackeray said.
The vaccination drive for the new category was carried out in 26 districts around state and it will start in all 36 districts from Sunday, according to official release. The government has urged people not to visit vaccination centres without registering themselves through Co-WIN app or portal first. On Saturday, Pune topped among 26 districts with 1,316 receiving the vaccines in the above-18 group, followed by 1,004 in Mumbai. Gadchiroli (83) and Yavatmal (90) remained at the bottom of the chart, according to the data released.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Saturday saw a slight dip in the number of COVID-19 related fatalities even as the state’s overall tally breached the 69,000-mark, while the number of daily infections jumped marginally, according to the health department.
Compared to 828 fatalities registered on Friday, the state on Saturday reported 802 fatalities, lower than the peak of 1,035 deaths (April 28), taking the state's overall tally to 69,615, the worst in the nation. The number of new cases remained above the 60,000- grim mark and went up slightly from 62,919 on Friday to 63,282 on Saturday, taking the state's total to 46,65,754. After four days, the state's death rate climbed up from 1.05 per cent to 1.49 per cent, while the number of active cases stood at 6,63,758.
On the positive front, 61,326 patients returned home, taking the total number of recoveries to 39,30,302 now, with a recovery of 84.24 per cent.
CENTRE TO PROVIDE 56 LAKH DOSES TO STATES IN THREE DAYS
With an objective to vaccinate maximum number of people to curtail COVID-19 infection, the Centre has decided to provide more than 56 lakh vaccine doses to the States and Union Territories within the next three days.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on Sunday said, “A total of 56,20,670 additional Covid vaccine doses will be provided to the states and the UTs in the next three days.” The decision was taken at a time when the cumulative number of COVID-19 vaccine doses administered in India has crossed 15.68 crore on Sunday with over 86,000 people covered in the Phase-3 of the nationwide vaccination drive started on Saturday. Meanwhile, the MoHFW clarified that it has so far provided nearly 16.54 crore vaccine doses (16,54,93,410) to states and UTs "free of cost". "Of this, the total consumption including wastage is 15,76,32,631 doses as per data available at 8 am on Sunday."