Maharashtra speeds Covid vaccination drive: 13,20,581 inoculated on Saturday
Maharashtra currently leads the nation in terms of citizens fully vaccinated against Covid. Till now, Maharashtra has administered a total of 73,257,136 vaccination doses. 20,600,374 citizens have been fully vaccinated
Amidst the apprehensions over the third wave of the pandemic, Maharashtra is currently speeding up its vaccination drive. On Saturday, 1,320,581 doses were administered, which is the second-highest one day figure to date. The highest was on September 8, when 1,517,311 doses were administered.
Maharashtra currently leads the nation in terms of fully vaccinated citizens. Till now Maharashtra has administered a total of 73,257,136 doses, of which 20,600,374 citizens have been fully vaccinated. This means that 22.88% of the targeted population have been fully vaccinated. The target is to approximately vaccinate 90,000,000 citizens. The Maharashtra government has the infrastructure to vaccinate 1.50 million daily.
“Maharashtra is doing a good job in vaccination, and this will help us to face the third wave, if any,” said Dr Subhash Salunkhe, advisor, Government of Maharashtra on Covid-19 management.
“Unlike last year, we now have a major population which is vaccinated, and this will be our greatest weapon to fight the third wave,” he added. However, he cautioned, “The challenge today is how effective the vaccines are against the variants,” he added.
Dr Wiqar Shaikh, professor of medicine, Grant Medical College and Sir JJ Hospital, describes the fully vaccinated people figures as abysmally low. “The current pace shows that we can reach our target by only next year and by that time, we may have to face the third wave. More than the vaccines, we need to stress on adopting Covid-appropriate behaviour like wearing masks, observing social distance and washing our hands regularly. Even people who have taken vaccines are getting infected,” said Shaikh.
Maharashtra on Saturday recorded 3,391 new Covid-19 cases and 80 deaths, while saw 478 cases and six deaths.
The state’s case tally has now reached 65,18,502, while the toll stands at 138,469. There were 165,363 tests done on Saturday in state, while the number of recoveries clocked 3,841.
There are currently 47,919 active patients across the state, of which Pune tops with 12,699 patients followed by Thane with 7,396 active patients and Ahmednagar with 6,230.