Since the vaccination drive against the novel Coronavirus began in India on January 16 this year, Maharashtra is said to have vaccinated almost 3.9 lakh beneficiaries. Of these, 3.85 lakh beneficiaries were healthcare workers and the remaining one are frontline workers. As of February 4, around 4,132 healthcare workers across six centres in the state (including Mumbai, Solapur and Aurangabad) were given the Covaxin shot.
Citing Dr D N Patil, state immunisation officer, a report by The Indian Express noted that the state has started vaccinating frontline workers and of the total 3.9 lakh beneficiaries, 3,925 frontline workers have so far been inoculated in some districts. He said plans are being made to increase the number of vaccination centres. “We have already increased the number of centres from 511 to 555 and will step it up further,” the report quoted Dr Patil as saying.
Among the top districts (Mumbai, Thane and Pune), the maximum number of beneficiaries (healthcare) are being vaccinated. As of now, the report noted 41,326 people in Mumbai Suburban, 35,823 in Pune and 37,349 people in Thane have been given vaccination against COVID-19 infection.
In Pune, the PMC was not able to start with the vaccination for frontline workers. Citing Dr Ashish Bharati, PMC medical chief, the report said that due to some technical issues along with the officials’ focus on creating additional sessions to accommodate frontline workers, a delay was seen in starting the vaccination process for frontline workers. So far, more than 1.5 lakh such frontline workers have been identified in Pune.
Meanwhile, India has succeeded in vaccinating more than 4 million healthcare workers. Vaccination drive was started in India on January 16 this year and as of February 4, 2021, as many as 44,49,552 healthcare workers have received their first vaccine jab, according to the data shared by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.