PUNE: Union minister of state for health and family welfare Bharati Pawar on Saturday said Maharashtra would continue to get adequate vaccine supplies in September and October to speed up inoculation amid the festivities.
“We shall give the state enough doses. Fortunately, the production of both the vaccines (Covishield and Covaxin) has been scaled up last month. All states will get adequate supplies in September and October,” she told TOI.
On the state’s demand of three crore monthly doses, the Union minister said it would depend on the production. “According to the production, the states are conveyed about the supply 15 days in advance and are directed to make the necessary arrangements to increase vaccination. This has been the routine. We are aware that states such as Kerala and Maharashtra have high number of cases. The vaccine distribution would be done accordingly,” she said.
Additional chief secretary, health, Dr Pradip Vyas said the state was allocated 1.7 crore doses in September for the government sites and 22 lakh for the private hospital sites.
Ahead of the possible third wave, Bharati Pawar, the Union minister, said the Centre has allocated funds for readying the health infrastructure. “Maharashtra has received the first instalment of Rs123 crore for the purpose under the National Health Mission,” she said.
The minister said the funds could be used to hire human resources for all activities in health management and even ambulances. She, however, pointed out that some districts in the state had still not installed the ventilators sent by the Centre.
“The PSA (pressure swing adsorption) oxygen plants assured by the state are not ready in some districts. We have directed the state authorities to do it at the earliest,” the minister said.
‘Yatra didn’t have a huge crowd’
The Union minister of state for health and family welfare, Dr Bharati Pawar, said the Jan Ashirwad Yatra did not involve any huge gathering. The minister conducted the yatra in four districts — Nashik, Palghar, Dhule and Nandurbar — between August 16 and 21. Reacting to deputy chief minister Ajit Pawar’s statement that the yatra could cause a spike in Covid cases in the state, she said, “The yatra was not carried out with much crowd. It was an effort of the central ministers to reach out to the state’s people to understand various issues faced by them.”
