Maharashtra Covid-19 vaccination drive to resume on Tuesday: CM Thackeray

Amidst uncertainty over resumption of the suspended Covid-19 vaccination drive in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray on Monday said the exercise will begin on Tuesday at 285 centres.

The CM took stock of the preparations for the drive at a meeting held with state chief secretary Sanjay Kumar, CM's principal advisor Ajoy Mehta, principal secretary to public health minister Dr Pradeep Vyas and other officials.

"The vaccination will take place four days a week starting Tuesday (January 19). Vaccination will be conducted on Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday at 285 centres in Maharashtra. 100 beneficiaries will be inoculated per centre in one day," the CM said.

State Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday evening that the state government will "review the situation" before restarting the vaccination drive from Tuesday in view of several complaints of minor adverse reactions as well as glitches in using the Co-WIN application.

The Maharashtra government on Saturday evening announced suspension of the Covid-19 vaccination drive till Monday owing to problems in the software application.

Thackeray said immunity against coronavirus is developed in 14 days after taking two shots.

"Even after that people will have to abide by the strict guidelines to avoid spread of coronavirus," the CM said.

At the meeting, the CM also assured officials that their inputs on making the Co-WIN software application easily accessible will be communicated to the Centre.

Tope had said the state government was waiting for the Centre's response on its request to use the offline method due to the problems being encountered with Co-WIN.

"At several places where vaccination was held on January 16, we have received complaints from health workers. Though none of the complaints is of a serious nature, we have decided to review the situation first and then resume the vaccination (drive)," he told reporters.

As per Union health ministry data, Maharashtra administered 18,328 vaccines of day one of the drive, which state officials said was some 64 per cent of the registered beneficiaries.