On Tuesday Maharashtra government said, Maharashtra will import vaccines from other countries and funds will be diverted from all the departments to carry out an extensive inoculation drive on the lines of the UK.
Welcoming the Union government’s decision to vaccinate the entire adult population of the country, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday the state will import vaccines that are available globally, including Pfizer, Moderna and Sputnik, to enable the vaccination of those between 18 and 45 years, following a decision by the Centre to open up vaccination for all adults starting May 1.
The state cabinet on Tuesday decided to carry out an “exemplary vaccination drive”. “If required, we will cut the funds of all the other departments to ensure availability of vaccines for people, He further added after a Cabinet meeting .
Tope had earlier said the state wanted to vaccinate seven lakh persons every day but restrictions imposed by the Centre and supply constraints made it possible to inoculate only about three lakh. The state would like to follow the example of the United Kingdom which had witnessed a severe spike in COVID-19 cases last year, he said.
“Today, 60 per cent of UK’s population is vaccinated. Very few new cases are being detected, while the death toll is in single digits. The entire country was kept under lockdown for three months and the vaccination drive was carried out on a massive scale,” he said.
“We have decided to cut the expenses of all the departments and divert the funds for vaccine procurement. We will not limit our plans only to the two vaccines that are manufactured in the country (Covishield and Covaxin) ,” he said.
Tope said that the cabinet also asked the state chief secretary and principal secretaries of finance, health and medical education departments to expedite the procurement of medical equipment to tackle the pandemic.
