Vaccination centers given nod to operate 24x7 in Maharashtra
What's the story
The Maharashtra-government'>Maharashtra Government has allowed all COVID-19 vaccination centers in the state to operate round-the-clock if they have adequate staff, to speed up the immunization drive in the state. So far, 21.25 lakh people have been inoculated in the state. Currently, medical staff, frontline workers, people aged over 60 years, and those over 45 with co-morbidities are eligible to get the vaccine shots.
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Each medical facility can take a call based on resources
"At present, it is an in-principle nod (for operating round-the-clock). It is up to the medical facilities, depending upon the availability of staff, to decide on the number of hours to carry out the vaccination," State Health Department Principal Secretary Dr. Pradeep Vyas said.
Vaccination drive
Government is making efforts to speed up vaccination process
The state government wants to speed up the vaccination process to cover the eligible population. It is adding more vaccination centers in the state. A number of private hospitals have also been roped in for the inoculation drive. However, health officials are facing the challenge of some people coming up with fake medical certificates to show they are eligible to take the vaccine.
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Some people are lying to get vaccinated
"Some people in their late 40s came up with fake medical certificates of co-morbidities to get the vaccine. They lied when asked to describe their illness. This is affecting eligible people from getting vaccinated in time," a health official from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said.
Action plan
Earlier, Maharashtra Government released a seven-point action plan
Earlier this week, the state government announced a seven-point action plan to contain the spread of COVID-19. The plan includes including testing of close contacts, fast contact-tracing, mass testing in hotspots, and audit of deaths. All district administrations have been directed to act upon these points. Earlier this month, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had said that a lockdown was inevitable in some regions.
COVID-19 spread
State has been seeing a surge in cases
Maharashtra reported 13,659 new cases on Wednesday, the highest single-day spike since early-October 2020. In February, the state recorded 1.31 lakh new infections, up from 92,177 in January and 1.20 lakh in December. However, the number of deaths came down to 1,072 in February. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Maharashtra has reported a total of 22,52,057 infections, including 52,610 deaths and 20,99,207 recoveries.