This announcement comes after Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Tuesday said the state government is considering holding off the COVID vaccination drive for the 18-44 age group temporarily due to a shortage of vaccine doses.
“The Union government has not provided enough vials of Covaxin and Covishield, hence we had to divert our own Covaxin stock, purchased for the 18-44 years age group, for the above- 45 age group,” Tope told reporters.
The Maharashtra government has asked vaccination centres to use the vials provided for the 18-44 age group to inoculate 45+ category, the minister said. “We are going slow on the vaccination of 18-44 age group,” he said.
Meanwhile, a drive-in vaccination centre for inoculating those above 60 years of age will become operational at the parking lot of Viviana Mall from Wednesday, Thane Mayor Naresh Mhaske has said.
The vaccine doses will be given to 100 senior citizens at the centre in a day, he added.
With the addition of 1,428 new cases of COVID-19, the infection count in Maharashtra’s Thane district has reached 4,91,817. Besides these new cases reported on Tuesday, the virus also claimed the lives of 65 more people, pushing the death toll in the district to 8,173. The COVID-19 mortality rate in Thane stood at 1.66 per cent.
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