Maharashtra: CM Uddhav Thackeray seeks Centre's help for better implementation of COVID-19 vaccination drive for 18-44 age group

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Saturday sought the help of the Central government for better implementation of the vaccination drive for people in the age group 18 to 44 years.

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In a letter to Prime Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister asked for a separate app developed by the states or a CoWin App for each state developed and assigned by the Union government to ensure better interface and experience for the citizens who are keen to take the vaccine shot.

"The vaccination drive in Maharashtra has been one of the fastest and most efficient in the country with every stock of vaccine that the Union government has kindly supplied to the state at various times in the past few months. Likewise, we plan to open up vaccination for age groups 18-44 via the states' procurement," said the Chef Minister.

Witnessing sudden surge of the number of citizens wanting to register nationally, there is a fear about the app malfunctioning or crashing, as it did on day 1 of registrations for the said age group.

"We therefore propose either a separate app developed by the states where the data can be shared with the Union Government's Ministry of Health or a CoWin App for each state developed and assigned by the Government of India," the letter read.

Apart from that, Thackeray mentioned other challenges including vaccine supplies and said the producers do not have enough stocks for the vaccination drive.

"If the States are allowed to procure from other manufacturers as well, we would be able to cover a larger population in a shorter time and help reduce the impact of the possible third wave of Covid," he said while urging him to consider these two suggestions.

Meanwhile, according to the Union Health Ministry, Maharashtra was among the 10 states that reported 71.81 per cent of new COVID-19 cases in the country on Friday. The state reported the highest daily new cases at 62,194. The state was among the 12 states that cumulatively accounted for 81.04 per cent of India's total active cases and had 6,41,281 active cases of the virus.