Prakash Javadekar accuses Maharashtra of poor administration of COVID-19 vaccines

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar. Pic/AFP

Union Minister Prakash Javadekar on Wednesday accused Maharashtra of "poor administration" of Covid-19 vaccines in the state alleging that MPs from the Shiv Sena were asking the Centre for more vaccines while the state has only utilised 44 per cent of what has already been delivered.

"Maharashtra government had only used 23 lakh vaccines out of the total 54 lakh vaccines sent to the state, till March 12.," Javadekar tweeted today.

Claiming that 56 per cent of vaccines remained unused, Javadekar posted on Twitter: "Now, Shiv Sena MP asks for more vaccines for the state. First mismanagement of pandemic now poor administration of vaccines."

Javadekar's tweet followed a post on the microblogging site by Rajya Sabha MP and Shiv Sena leader Priyanka Chaturvedi. "Shouldn't Indians have equal access for vaccines manufactured in India?" she questioned on Twitter.

On Tuesday, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan had written to Maharashtra Chief Secretary highlighting the observation by a central team which visited the state last week and observed that it is at the beginning of a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The letter mentions that the test positivity rate was high in the districts visited by the central team, ranging from 51 per cent in Mumbai to 30 per cent in Aurangabad.

While the positivity rate in Maharashtra stands at 13.21 per cent, the recovery rate is 92.21 per cent. The fatality rate in the state is 2.28 per cent, the central team observed.

Pointing towards contact tracing, the Health Secretary's letter mentioned that the case-contact ratio is more than 1:20 in the state.

"Though it appears high, a deep dive into the methodology of contact tracing revealed that the main concept of contact tracing was not clearly understood by the field level staff, who were mainly listing the immediate family and neighborhood contacts," he added.

Pointing towards contact tracing, the Health Secretary's letter mentioned that the case-contact ratio is more than 1:20 in the state."Though it appears high, a deep dive into the methodology of contact tracing revealed that the main concept of contact tracing was not clearly understood by the field level staff, who were mainly listing the immediate family and neighborhood contacts," he added.

As of Wednesday, India's total active caseload has reached 2.34 lakh (2,34,406) comprising 2.05 per cent of the total infections.

"Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab account for 76.4 per cent of India's total active cases, with Maharashtra alone contributing nearly 60 per cent," the union health ministry said.

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