Not enough COVID-19 vaccines, have urged Centre for 40 lakh more doses per week: Maha Health Min

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Wednesday said the state is facing a COVID-19 vaccine shortage and demanded 40 lakh doses every week from the Centre.

The Health Minister was addressing a press meet on the COVID-19 situation in the state on Wednesday.

"We do not have enough vaccine doses at various vaccination centres, and people have to be sent back due to a shortage of doses," Tope said.

Staying short of blaming the Centre, the Minister said that the supply has to be speeded up.

"Currently, we have 14 lakh vaccine doses which will get over in the next three days. We've urged for 40 lakh more vaccine doses per week. I'm not saying that the Center is not giving us vaccines but the speed of delivery of vaccines is slow," he said.

The Health Minister added that they are working on war footing to increase the number of beds in Pune, Mumbai, Nashik and other parts of the state.

The state has also demanded the inclusion of people of age group 20-40 years into the vaccination process and they must be vaccinated on priority.

"We suspect that there is a new strain that is affecting people in a shorter duration of time. Samples have been sent to National Centre for Disease Control to ascertain this," Tope further said.

On Wednesday, Maharashtra reported 55,469 new COVID-19 cases and 297 deaths.

The active number of cases in the state stands at 4,72,283. The death toll in the state has gone up to 56,330.

( With inputs from ANI )