India's Worst Hit Maharashtra State Seeks To Vaccinate 700,000 People Per Day - Minister

NEW DELHI (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2021) India's Maharashtra, the state worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the country, seeks to increase the number of people receiving vaccines daily to 700,000, Rajesh Tope, the head of the state's health department, said.

India has been witnessing a spike in the daily infection rate for over a month, resulting in the number of patients jumping from about 135,000 to over 1.4 million. The state alone reported on Tuesday over 60,000 new infections for the third time this month. On Wednesday, Maharashtra introduced lockdown-related restrictions, banning public gatherings of over four people and non-essential travel on public transport, and extended a nighttime curfew for the next 15 days.

"Maharashtra seeks to vaccinate from 600,000 to 700,000 people per day, for which we need to receive 400,000 to 450,000 doses of the vaccine weekly. If we manage to vaccinate so many people every day, it will be an important step in containing the spread of COVID-19 in the state," Tope told reporters on Thursday, as cited by the Indian NDTV broadcaster.

The official added that the state's leadership would visit New Delhi in the coming days to discuss the supply of coronavirus vaccines with the national authorities.

So far, the 114-million-strong state has carried out more than 11.5 million vaccinations, and over 10.3 million people have received the first dose.