Only three of the 18 districts considered red zones by the Maharashtra government for higher positivity rate than the State’s average have completed more than 10-lakh vaccine doses. The other districts are among the worst performing in the State in terms of doses.
According to sources within the Public Health department, shortage of vaccines has hampered the drive and once the vaccines are available, the government will speed up the process.
The government on Tuesday announced the decision to stop home quarantine in 18 districts which show higher positivity rate than the State’s average. It said Satara, Sindhudurg, Ratnagiri, Osmanabad, Beed, Raigad, Pune, Hingoli, Akola, Amaravati, Kolhapur, Thane, Sangli, Gadchiroli, Wardha, Nasik, Ahmadnagar and Latur are 18 districts which have higher positivity rate than the State average.
Among these, except Pune, Thane and Kolhapur none of the other districts have crossed the 10-lakh dose mark. The number of citizens inoculated with two doses is even less.
Hingoli (1,32,762), Gadchiroli (1,48,658) and Sindhudurg (1,85,289) are three of the worst-performing districts in terms of vaccination numbers while Pune (26,80,894), Thane (15,96,359) and Kolhapur (11,63627) are the three leading districts. Other districts and their performance is mentioned in the box below.
Identically, only Pune (3,83,066), Thane (2,34,388), Kolhapur (1,64,685) and Nasik (1,32,875) have completed more than one lakh second doses to citizens above 45.
The Hindu contacted the Collectors of seven districts who on the condition of anonymity accepted that the vaccine shortage is dampening government’s efforts to fight the pandemic.
