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Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray today said that the state will begin the vaccination drive for the age group of 18-44 years from tomorrow. The commencement of this vaccination drive in the state coincides with the 61st Maharashtra Day which will be celebrated tomorrow sans festivities.
Virtually addressing the people of the state through various social media platforms, Chief Minister Thackeray said that 12 crore vaccine doses will be needed to inoculate 6 crore people in this particular age group.
He informed that the state is ready to make a one-time payment through cheque to purchase the entire consignment of 12 crore vaccine vials.
However, he lamented that due to the shortage of vaccines, the inoculation drive will be done when the stocks of vaccines are available with the state government. He added that the state would be receiving 18 lakh vaccines from the Centre for the month.
Urging people not to crowd the vaccination centres, he appealed to people not to create chaos.
He also claimed that Maharashtra is at the forefront in the vaccination drive as 1.58 crore people have taken the shots of vaccines against Covid-19.
Allow the state to design its app
He said he has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to allow the Maharashtra government to design its app on the lines of the Cowin app to facilitate the vaccination drive. He said the app which will be designed by the state government will be linked with the centralised app of the central government.
Taking a jibe at his critics from the opposition parties, Thackeray said that some leaders were not in favour of imposing strict restrictions in the state which is similar to a lockdown.
He said, had the state government not imposed these restrictions the active caseload of Covid patients would have touched 9-10 lakh by now. He said all must follow the restrictions imposed by the government to break the chain of Covid-19.
Exhorting people to work as a family and a team, Thackeray said that the state government has been continuously ramping up the healthcare facilities. He said there are 5,500 Covid care
Centres in the state. Besides, the bed capacity has also been ramped up to more than four lakh, in addition, to 86 thousand oxygen beds. Thackeray said as of today there are 11,713 ventilators available with Maharashtra.
He further said that as against the requirement of 50,000 Remedesivir injections daily, the state has been receiving 35,000 injections from the Centre.
