Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday met Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya in the national capital and requested him to reduce the gap between two doses of Serum Institute of India (SII) manufactured COVID-19 vaccine Covishield from 84 days to 28 days "to speed up the vaccination process".
"With the intention of preparing for the probable third wave of COVID-19 pandemic", Tope urged Mandaviya to consider a proposal of giving a booster dose to healthcare workers. He also asked the Union Health Minister to roll out vaccination for children under the age of 18 years "as early as possible".
Tope also requested approval on budget allocation for human resources in supplementary PIP under National Health Mission. He further requested approval on the revised proposal regarding setting up Cath Labs under the supplementary PIP of National Health Mission, which was previously disapproved under PIP.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra on Monday reported 686 fresh coronavirus positive cases and 19 fatalities, taking the tally in the state to 66,24,986 and the toll to 1,40,602, an official said.
He said Maharashtra has been witnessing less than 700 COVID-19 cases per day since the beginning of November, adding that Monday's addition to the tally was lower than Sunday, while the fatality count was higher than the day earlier.
The discharge of 912 patients in the last 24 hours took the recovery count in Maharashtra to 64,68,791, leaving the state with 11,943 active cases. The number of people in home quarantine stood at 99,859 and those in an institutional quarantine is 1,016.
Maharashtra's case recovery rate now stands at 97.64 per cent and the fatality rate is 2.12 per cent.
Coronavirus figures for Maharashtra are as follows: Total cases 66,24,986, new cases 686, total deaths 1,40,602, fresh deaths 19, total recoveries 64,68,791, active cases 11,943, total tests conducted 6,40,52,219.
(With PTI inputs)
