Maharashtra has administered 11.30 lakh Covid-19 vaccine doses till 4 pm on Saturday and it plans to increase its pace in the days to come, officials said.
During the ongoing vaccination drive, till 7am on Saturday the state administered 7,19,07,937 vaccines, which comprises 5,18,44,166 first and 2,00,63,771 second doses.
According to the public health department, till September 17, the state administered 12,56,311 doses in 4,868 sessions. On September 8, it had set a new record by administering 15,03,959 doses in 5,271 sessions.
Additional chief secretary from the public health department Dr Pradeep Vyas said “On Friday, Maharashtra became first state in the country to fully vaccinate more than 2 crore of its population.”
As reported by Free Press Journal, the state can increase the pace of vaccination as the Centre has indicated an allocation of 1.70 crore doses under its free supply quota and 22 lakh doses under private hospital quota from the Centre for September. However, in its recent communication to the Centre, the state has requested an additional one crore doses and 1.92 crore doses have been assured for September.
Chief minister Uddhav Thackeray and public health minister Rajesh Tope have urged the Centre to supply three crore doses per month as the state has the capacity to administer 15 lakh vaccines daily.
According to the public health department, 51.1% people in the 18-plus age group have been administered at least one dose, while 57.6% in the above 45-year-old category have got one dose during the ongoing vaccination.
