As Maharashtra continues to grapple with surging coronavirus cases, the state government has sounded an alert over the depleting stock of COVID-19 vaccine in the state. Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said that he has informed the Centre about the situation. The state has 14 lakh doses left which will last only three days, Tope told reporters during a press conference in Mumbai.
He went on to add that authorities had to shut some vaccination centres owing to a lack of shots.
"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," Tope said.
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"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 urging the Centre to rush more doses to the state on an urgent basis.
The minister underlined that is an urgent need to control the viral infection by increasing the immunity level of people and creating antibodies.
"Most of those infected now are in the age group of 25 to 40 years," Tope said.
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Nearly 82 lakh people have been vaccinated so far in Maharashtra since the roll-out of the inoculation drive. The state recorded over 55,000 coronavirus positive cases on Tuesday, the second-highest spike in the last two days. Capital city Mumbai, Thane, Nagpur, Pune are some of the worst-affected cities witnessing high number of cases daily.
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