To control the crowd at the vaccination centres amidst the limited supply of vaccines, the Maharashtra government has decided to vaccinate beneficiaries from the 35-44 age group, health minister Rajesh Tope informed on Friday.
Tope also said that the beneficiaries from the 18-34 age group will be administered doses after adequate supply.
The minister shared the update on a Facebook live today.
He also informed that the state government might use the Covaxin to vaccinate all above 45 years whose second dose is due from the stock provided to inoculate registered beneficiaries between 18 to 44 years of age if the Central Government does not provide Covaxin in large quantities.
Meanwhile, the Centre has provided more than 17.35 crore vaccine doses to the states and the union territories free of cost, and more than 90 lakh doses are still available with them, the Health Ministry said, adding over 10 lakh doses will be received by the states and UTs in the next three days.
In a statement, the Union health Ministry said that so far, more than 17.35 crore vaccine doses (17,35,07,770) have been provided to states and UTs free of cost of this, and the total consumption including wastage is 16,44,77,100 doses.
"More than 90 lakh Covid Vaccine doses (90,30,670) are still available with the States and UTs to be administered. States with a negative balance are showing more consumption (including wastage) than vaccine supplied as they have not reconciled the vaccine they have supplied to Armed Forces, Furthermore, more than 10 lakh (10,25,000) vaccine doses will be received in addition by the States/UTs within the next three days," the Ministry said.
So far, Odisha received 2.75 lakh doses followed by West Bengal (2,00,000), Uttar Pradesh (1,50,000), Maharashtra (1,50,000), Goa (one lakh) Assam (one lakh), Dadar and Nagar Haveli (25,000) and Daman and Diu (25,000).
As per the government data, Uttar Pradesh (9,63,994) has highest balance available doses followed by Tamil Nadu (6,13,622), Haryana (6,10,839), Madhya Pradesh (5,79,099), Gujarat (5,76,058), Jharkhand (5,00,795), Maharashtra (4,84,287), Bihar (4,55,316), Delhi (4,37,182) and Telangana (3,84,337).
The Ministry said that the Government is leading the fight against the Covid pandemic in collaboration with the States and UT through a "Whole of Government" approach.
Vaccination forms an integral component of the five-point strategy of the Government in the containment and management of the pandemic (including Test, Track, Treat and Covid Appropriate Behaviour).
The Ministry pointed out that implementation of the Liberalized and Accelerated Phase 3 Strategy of Covid-19 Vaccination has started from May 1 and potential beneficiaries can either register directly on the CoWIN portal (cowin.gov.in) or through the Aarogya Setu app.
(With inputs from IANS)
