Keypoints:
- The state has announced free vaccination for the people in the age group of 18-44 in the third phase of Covid vaccination drive beginning from May 1.
- Fresh stock of Covishield vaccines was received by BMC on Wednesday night and it will be distributed at the vaccination centres which will resume the inoculation drive from afternoon.
- With the surge in Covid-19 cases, Maharashtra has extended statewide lockdown to 15 days till May 15.
On Wednesday night, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) received fresh stock of Covishield vaccine doses and it will be distributed to vaccination centres thus leading to resumption of the inoculation drive.
It was announced that 40 out of 73 private Covid-19 vaccination centres in the city will remain closed on Thursday due to insufficient vaccines stock.
After which, on Wednesday, the Mumbai Civic Body said in a tweet that, “Good news Mumbai! We are receiving a fresh stock of #Covishield tonight to be distributed only in Gov and MCGM hospitals/centres (not Pvt) tomorrow morning. So all Govt and MCGM, CVCs will be functional but only post 12 PM. See you getting #Vaccinated #ByBMCVaccinationUpdate.”
Maharashtra is witnessing massive surge in daily Covid-19 cases due to which the government has announced further extension of complete statewide lockdown till May 15. On Wednesday, overall cases in the state witnessed a jump of 63,309 cases whereas Mumbai reported 4,926 fresh cases.
The third phase of vaccination drive begins on May 1 for the people in the age group of 18-44. The state has announced free vaccination for people coming in this age group. For the government, it would cost around 6,500 crore to vaccinate around 57.1 million citizens in 18-44 age group. However, the state has said that due to insufficient vaccines stocks, the third phase will not be rolled out on May 1. The drive will roll out only after availability of vaccines.
State Health Minister Rajesh Tope had earlier said that, “We are all eager to know whether the vaccination will start from May 1. The answer is that the vaccination will not start from May 1. The reason is that (sufficient vaccines) are not available immediately with us today itself.”
He also said that the state shall form a committee which would include health department representatives and a few senior ministers to do micro planning about implementing the vaccination programme. It will be discussed in the panel if people can be categorised into 18-25, 25-35 and 35-44 age group can be vaccinated first or those with comorbidities among these will be inoculated first.
