Covid-19: Maharashtra seeks more Covaxin doses for precautionary shot

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said the state has sought additional stocks of Covaxin for providing precautionary or booster dose to co-morbid people aged above 60, health and frontline workers.

Tope, who participated in a virtual meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the prevailing COVID-19 situation in the country, later told reporters that the state has sought 40 lakh doses of Covaxin.

As per the Centre's guidelines, the home-grown vaccine manufactured by Bharat Biotech is the only one which is to be administered to teenagers in the 15 to 18 age group.

The minister said Maharashtra has also sought 50 lakh doses of Covishield for administering the precautionary dose. He said feedback from district authorities was that there was a shortage of Covaxin for the booster dose.

Tope said the Centre should take steps to tackle vaccine hesitancy among people. The minister said pharmacies have been asked to keep a record of people purchasing coronavirus home testing kits and provide information about the same to government authorities.

He said 4,000 swab samples have been taken for genomic sequencing so far in the state, out of which 1,300 were found infected with the Omicron variant and 2,700 with the Delta strain of coronavirus. Tope said the Centre should bring clarity in treatment protocol of coronavirus patients.