16.4 million Covid-19 vaccine doses given in state till December 25

PUNE Over 16.4 million doses administered so far, Maharashtra’s vaccination may touch 20 million in December,

Maharashtra has, till December 25, administered at least 16.4 million (1.64 crore) Covid-19 vaccine doses, which is a sharp rise compared to the past two months, according to the Central government’s CoWin dashboard.

The rise in inoculations is mostly due to local administration in various districts making vaccine doses mandatory for people to be able to access various services. People have also shed a hesitancy in the light of a fresh threat emerging from Omicron variant.

With a few days remaining for December to end, state may reach the milestone of administering 20 million doses in a month, considering the daily average of 600,000 to 800,000 shots being administered.

Earlier in September, at least 20.2 million shots were administered in the state. Of the administered total vaccine doses in December, 5,154,120 are first doses and 11,268,352 are second doses. Till Saturday, a total of 130,937,956 doses have been administered in the state since the commencement of the Covid immunisation programme.

Pune district has also seen an uptick in the doses administered in December.

In December, so far, almost 1,614,421 total doses were administered in Pune district. The number of second doses have exceeded the number of first doses in the district.

Speaking to reporters in Jalna on Saturday, Maharashtra health minister Rajesh Tope said that around 10 million people in the state who are eligible for the vaccination have still not taken even the first dose. He also pointed out that the daily speed of vaccination has slowed down in the state with 500,000-600,000 doses being administered per day in the state.

“A total of 87% of the eligible population has been given the first dose and 57-58% have been given the second dose. Now, daily 500,000-600,000 doses are being administered. Approximately, 10 million people remain to get the first dose. With this speed they can be covered in 15 days. Vaccines shots are abundantly available. The speed of 12,00,000 doses per day has been reduced to around 600,000,” said Tope.

He asked people to come forward to take the vaccine. “We need a good response from people to maintain this speed. In rural parts officials have been given the lists and are meeting people to encourage them to take the vaccine,” said Tope.

The Maharashtra government has launched the “Har Ghar Dastak” drive to motivate people to get vaccinated. In order to remove the hesitancy to take the second dose and inspire people to get the first dose, local administrations have been applying various methods including personally contacting unvaccinated people and imposing restrictions on those who are not inoculated.

On December 23, the state crossed the milestone of administering 130 million vaccine doses. The 100 million mark was achieved on November 9, and the 120 million mark was achieved on December 7.