'COVID-19 Vaccine Stock To Run Out In Three Days, Need More Doses': Maharashtra To Centre

Vaccine stocks in inoculation centres at various locations in Maharasthra may run out in the next three days, state health minister Rajesh Tope said on Wednesday.

Tope said people were sent back due to vaccine shortage and some vaccination centres had to be shut down. He also said that the Maharashtra government had asked the Centre to send more vaccines and demanded that people between 20 to 40 years of age be vaccinated on priority.

"We do not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres, and people have to be sent back due to a shortage of doses. We have demanded from the Centre that people of age group 20-40 years must be vaccinated on priority," news agency Asia News International quoted Tope as saying.

He also said that the state needs 40 lakh vaccines per week if they have to inoculate five lakh people, while right now, only 14 lakh vaccines are left. "We've asked for 40 lakh more vaccine doses per week. I'm not saying that the Center is not giving us vaccines, but the speed of delivery of vaccines is slow."

Maharashtra is one of the worst-affected states in both the first and the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic contributing nearly half the daily cases across India. The state recorded about 55,000 cases on Tuesday, the second-highest this week after 57,000 cases reported on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Mumbai civic body has also reported a shortage of vaccines and said that they have only one lakh doses of Covishield left, reported NDTV.

On Monday, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray had written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked 1.5 crore vaccines to inoculate all people above 45 years of age in six districts within three weeks. He had also requested the PM to open vaccination for all people above 25 years of age.