Maharashtra: Hundreds of COVID-19 vaccination centers shut in Pune, Satara
COVID-19 vaccination drive took an unexpected turn in Maharashtra as centers were shut down in several areas of the state including Pune, Satara, and Panvel, reportedly due to lack of vaccine stocks. The development has come after Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope warned that the state was fast running out of doses to administer. Here are more details on this.
Vaccination drive temporarily halted, said Panvel civic body
According to Vinay Gouda, the Chief Executive Officer of the Satara Zilla Parishad, the authorities have run out of vaccine doses. Meanwhile, the Panvel Municipal Corporation said in a notice that all the government and private vaccination centers had been closed due to the unavailability of vaccines. "Centers will be reopened once vaccines are back in stock," the notice read, according to ANI.
Over 100 centers shut in Pune, said NCP MP
Pune also shut more than 100 vaccination centers citing unavailability of doses, Nationalist Congress Party MP Supriya Sule tweeted last night. "Several thousand people went back without being vaccinated because the vaccines stock was exhausted," she wrote, adding, "109 centers remained shut today because they had no stock of vaccines. Our momentum may be lost due to lack of stock, we remain determined (sic)."
Kindly help us, Sule appealed to Union Health Minister
Only 3 days' stock left, Maharashtra Minister said yesterday
Yesterday, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope had warned that the state would run out of its vaccine stocks within just three days. "Today 14 lakh doses are available, which means there is only three days' stock. So every week we need 40 lakh doses," he said. Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi also wrote to Union Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan in this regard.
Union Minister slammed the Maharashtra government
However, Dr. Vardhan has denied the claims of vaccine shortage and also hit out at the Maharashtra government, saying that it is spreading panic among people to cover up its own failure to control the pandemic. "Overall, as the state has lurched from one crisis to another, it seems as if the state leadership is happily sleeping at the wheels," Dr. Vardhan said.
India reports 1.26 lakh new coronavirus cases
Maharashtra, which is India's worst-hit state in the outbreak, yesterday reported 59,907 new COVID-19 cases and 322 fatalities. Worryingly, India has been witnessing a massive surge in coronavirus cases for the past few weeks. In fact, the country on Wednesday reported more than 1.26 lakh fresh infections, the biggest single-day spike since the pandemic began, taking the nationwide tally to over 1.29 crore.
