Maharashtra govt to raise Covid vaccine shortage issue before PM Modi today

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope said his government would raise issues of Covid-19 vaccine and Remedisivir drug shortages before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the virtual meet

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope on Thursday said his government would raise issues of COVID-19 vaccine and Remedisivir drug shortages before Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the virtual meet scheduled for today.

"We will raise four issues before the Prime Minister in today's video conference meet. The issues will be; Remdesivir supply and price control, supply of oxygen from nearby states to Maharashtra, shortage of vaccine dosages, and the ventilator operational support," Tope said.

The Maharastra Health Minister added that according to the latest release order of vaccines by the Centre, Maharashtra was only given 7.5 lakh vaccine dosages. While Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Haryana etc, have been given far more vaccines than Maharashtra.

He and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar talked to Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan immediately after the order and asked for more doses.

"I have just been informed that the Center increased COVID-19 vaccine doses from 7 lakhs to 17 lakhs. Even this is less because we need 40 lakh vaccine doses a week and 17 lakh doses are not enough," Tope added.

He further said that instead of supplying vaccines to other countries, supply them to our own states first. Maharashtra wants at least 40 lakh vaccine dosages every week.

"The centre is helping us but it is not helping us in the way it should be," the Minister added.

"We are still waiting. We want 1.6 crore vaccine dosages per month and 40 lakh every week because we are vaccinating 6 lakh people every day," the Minister said.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray will attend a meeting on the Covid-19 situation in the state with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at 6.30 pm on Thursday via video conferring.

Maharashtra reported 55,469 new COVID-19 cases and 297 deaths on Wednesday-- the highest by any state in India. 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.