On Thursday, April 8, Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope called out the Union Health Ministry for discriminating against the state when it came to providing adequate vaccine doses for the coronavirus.
According to reports, Tope stated that he does not want to play the blame game with the Centre, but wants to rather work hand-in-hand with the authorities.
Addressing a press conference in the city, Tope said, "I have received the latest release order of vaccine doses from the Centre and according to that, Maharashtra has been given only 7.5 lakh doses, as compared to 48 lakhs to Uttar Pradesh, 40 lakhs to Madhya Pradesh, 30 lakhs to Gujarat and 24 lakhs to Haryana."
He further added, "As soon as I saw the order, I immediately spoke to Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan and asked him why is the Centre discriminating against Maharashtra? A state which has a population of more than 12 crores, has 4.5 lakh active cases, 75,000 deaths, and a positivity rate of 20-25 per cent. We vaccinate close to 6 lakh people daily, which means we need 40 lakh of doses per week,”
Meanwhile, with the supply for coronavirus vaccinations running short, several districts have been forced to shut the vaccination process which includes Navi Mumbai, Satara and Panvel.
Earlier on Thursday, April 8, in an unfortunate development, the COVID-19 vaccination drive was paused in the Panvel area of Maharashtra, due to the unavailability of vaccines. According to the official notification issued by the Panvel Municipal Corporation, "Vaccination drive temporarily halted in all government and private inoculation centres in Panvel, due to unavailability of COVID-19 vaccines. Centres will be reopened once vaccines are back in stock."
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