Reviewing situation before resuming COVID-19 vaccination: Maharashtra Health Minister

MUMBAI: The Maharashtra 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, state Health Minister Rajesh Tope said on Monday.

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

Tope 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 we witnessed several problems in using the Co-WIN app, we had requested the Centre to allow the offline method to carry out the inoculation. We are waiting for the Centre's response," Tope added.

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.