Maha vaccine drive to be held 5-day a week, 1 lakh covered so far

As many as 99,242 health workershave been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine inMaharashtra since the drive was launched on January 16, asenior official said on Saturday, adding the state willconduct the exercise on five days per week beginning January25 to cover more beneficiaries quickly.Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, state healthdepartment, said the number of days to conduct the vaccinationdrive per week has been raised from four days to five daysnow.Nearly 1 lakh health workers have been given thefirst dose of vaccine since January 16 in the state.

As many as 99,242 health workershave been administered the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine inMaharashtra since the drive was launched on January 16, asenior official said on Saturday, adding the state willconduct the exercise on five days per week beginning January25 to cover more beneficiaries quickly.

Pradeep Vyas, principal secretary, state healthdepartment, said the number of days to conduct the vaccinationdrive per week has been raised from four days to five daysnow.

''Nearly 1 lakh health workers have been given thefirst dose of vaccine since January 16 in the state. Toincrease the reach, the state has now decided to carry out theinoculation drive for COVID-19 for five days a week startingfrom Monday next week,'' he said.

''The vaccine's first dose was administered today to24,282 health workers, taking the total (beneficiariescovered) to 99,242. Gondia, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Amravati,Jalna, Beed, Dhule, Hingoli, Nanded and Osmanabad districtsreported over 100 per cent vaccination. It means more peoplecould be vaccinated than the target for the day,'' he added.

According to officials, around three lakh healthworkers will be vaccinated now as they need to take the seconddose after a gap of four weeks.

Earlier, state health minister Rajesh Tope had saidthe plan was to vaccinate only 50 per cent healthcare workersbecause Maharashtra got less than eight lakh dosages, with a10 per cent wastage risk.

In Nashik district, a total of 1,171 health workers ofthe targeted 1,300 received the COVID-19 jabs on Saturday at13 centres.

One of the beneficiaries suffered minor problems afterthe vaccination but he was immediately given first aid and hiscondition recovered, an official release said.

No serious health issues were reported during thevaccination drive, which was conducted smoothly.

The number and percentage of vaccination in otherdistricts under the Nashik division is: Ahmednagar 870 (72.

50 %), Dhule 435 (108.75 %), Jalgaon 664 (94.86 %) andNandurbar 308 (77 %).

In all, out of the 4,000 targetted beneficiaries forthe day in the Nashik division, 3,448 health workers, or 86.20per cent, were administered the vaccine on Saturday.