PUNE: Maharashtra has reported a steady rise in the number of vaccinations over the past week, touching a high of 83% on Saturday.
Health officials attributed the rise in vaccination to the “ all-out efforts” made to ease the beneficiaries’ concerns regarding the side-effects of the vaccine.
On January 16, when the drive was launched across the country, Maharashtra had reported 64% vaccination. A week later, on Saturday, the state reported 83% vaccination. As many as 24,282 beneficiaries received the vaccine on Saturday, taking the total number of vaccinations done so far to just short of 1 lakh.
On Saturday, 297 healthcare workers took the Covaxin vaccine, taking the total number to 1,572.
Ten districts in the state — mostly in the Marathwada and Vidarbha regions — reported roughly 100% vaccination on Saturday. Senior doctors and health officials in many districts have come forward to take the vaccine jab.
Thane district continues to report the maximum number of vaccinations (2,201) in the state for the day, though it managed to give the shots to 96% of the beneficiaries identified for the day. The district has been reporting high vaccination since January 16.
Pune district reported 60% vaccinations on Saturday, while Nashik was slightly behind with 56% coverage.
A senior doctor in Pune said they were confident of the vaccination number picking up due to the increasing awareness. “We need to ensure that the process is smooth and all doubts are cleared,” he said.According to the Union ministry of health and family welfare, 15,37,190 beneficiaries had received the vaccine till 6pm on Saturday. Of them, 1.46 lakh beneficiaries had received the vaccine on Saturday alone.
The ministry said that no case of serious or severe adverse effect or death attributed to the vaccine has been reported in the country so far. Officials said 11 beneficiaries have been hospitalised due to adverse effects till date in the country. Also, six deaths have been reported in the country, but none have been linked to the Covid-19 vaccine.
On Saturday, Maharashtra reported 2,697 new Covid-19 cases, while 3,694 patients were discharged after fully recovering from the illness. The state reported 56 deaths due to Covid-19 during the day. On Saturday, there were 43,870 active Covid-19 cases in the state.