Maharashtra likely to run out of COVID-19 vaccine in three days, says health minister Rajesh Tope

Mumbai: Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said the state has 14 lakh doses of COVID-19 vaccine which would last only three days, and many inoculation centres were being closed due to the shortage of the vaccine. Talking to reporters in Mumbai, Tope said people coming to such centres for taking jabs were being sent back as there was no supply of vaccine doses. “Fourteen lakh doses are available now which would last three days. We need 40 lakh vaccine doses every week. We can then administer six lakh doses every day in a week. The doses we are getting are not enough,” he said. Tope said the state government was earlier vaccinating four lakh people in a day. “We accepted the challenge from the Centre to expedite the vaccination drive to six lakh per day. Now, we were vaccinating nearly 5 lakh people in a day,” he said. The minister urged the Centre to give priority to Maharashtra since the coronavirus cases were more in the state and the overall toll was over 50,000. “Most of those infected now are in the age group of 25 to 40 years,” he said. There is an urgent need to control the viral infection by increasing the immunity level of people and creating antibodies, Tope said. He also urged the National Centre for Disease Control to inform the states if the present infection spread is because of a new mutant strain of the virus. “If that is the case, please tell us what is the course of medication,” he said. Earlier in the day, state principal secretary (health) Pradeep Vyas told PTI that several districts in Maharashtra will run out of the COVID-19 vaccine stock “today or tomorrow” and the Centre has been informed about it. Maharashtra can easily administer five lakh vaccine doses in a day if there is clarity on schedule and availability, the official said. Tope said about 1,200 metric tonne oxygen is being manufactured in the state every day and the daily consumption is 700 metric tonne, of which 80 per cent is for medical use. The minister said he has urged the Centre to direct neighbouring states to facilitate oxygen supply to Maharashtra. Tope also asked all private doctors not to prescribe Remdesivir injections irrationally to hike the bills of COVID-19 patients, and that they should also follow the central government’s guidelines on the use of the medicine. He said Maharashtra has followed the ‘3T’ (testing, tracing and treatment) principles strictly and taken all steps to ensure COVID-appropriate behaviour by imposing prohibitory orders and night curfew to stop crowding. Nearly 82 lakh people have been vaccinated so far in Maharashtra since the roll-out of the inoculation drive. An official statement on Tuesday said Maharashtra had received 1.06 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, out of which 88 lakh doses have been used while the wastage stood at three per cent. It said the state government will vigorously pursue its demand for more stock of vaccine doses, considering the rapid rise in the COVID-19 cases and expansion of the vaccination drive. Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow people above 25 years to receive COVID-19 shots, which he said will protect the young people from the rapid spread of the viral infection at a time when they are stepping outside their homes to earn a livelihood. In a letter to the PM, Thackeray also demanded that Maharashtra be provided 1.5 crore additional doses of vaccines, which will enable the state government to complete within three weeks the vaccination of beneficiaries above 45 years of age in six districts, including Mumbai.