Shiv Sena’s former Health Minister Dr. Deepak Sawant, a lady doctor Dr. Madhura Patil and Serum Institute of India (SII) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Adar Poonawalla were among the first lot to be administered Covid-19 vaccine in Maharashtra on Saturday.
While Dr Sawant was administered Covid-19 vaccine at the R. N. Cooper Hospital, Vile Parle in north-west Mumbai, Dr Patil was injected with the vaccine at the Bandra Kurla Complex field hospital in north-central Mumbai.
In a confidence building exercise, SII CEO Adar Poonawalla, whose company is the major manufacturer of Covid vaccine, took a life-saving jab of the Covishield Vaccine produced by his company in Pune.
Soon after having been vaccinated against Covid-19 virus on the inaugural day of the vaccination drive launched earlier in the morning in Maharashtra by chief minister Uddhav Thackeray, Poonawalla posted a video of him rolling up his sleeve and taking the Covid vaccine from an administrator at an unidentified location in Pune.
“I wish India & (PM) Narendra Modiji great success in launching the world’s largest Covid vaccination rollout,” Poonawala tweeted., along with the video showing him taking the vaccine dose.
“It brings me great pride that Covishield is part of this historic effort and to endorse its safety and efficacy, I join our health workers in taking the vaccine myself,” Poonawalla added
While launching Covid-19 vaccine drive in Maharashtra, Chief Minister Thackeray said: “With this, we have taken a revolutionary step today… During the Covid-19 pandemic, the health workers cooperated with us in a big way. Even after the vaccination, all Covid-19 precautions must continue to be observed”. Amid the media glare, Dr. Patil took the first Covishield vaccine dose in the presence of the chief minister, Mayor Kishori Pednekar, BMC Commissioner I. S. Chahal, Starwe ministers, civic and medical officials and other invitees..
Beginning Saturday, the Covid-19 vaccines are being administered at 285 centres in all 36 districts across Maharashtra, including 9 centres in Mumbai where an average of 4,000 shall be vaccinated daily, from 9 am to 5 pm.
“We have received 139,400 doses of Covishield Vaccine from the Serum Institute of India. So far, nearly 1.30 lakh people have registered themselves for vaccination,” the Mayor said.
Chahal said that as per the Centre’s guidelines, the vaccination drive will be carried out in three phases with the frontline workers, followed by sanitation and other health workers, police and those above 50 years ago, and lastly all under 50 years with comorbidities “Bbut people below age of 18 have not been included for the time being,” he said.
For the first two phases, people would have to register through the CoWin digital platform, officials said. Earlier this week, Maharashtra received 963,000 doses of Covishield and another 20,000 vials of the Covaxin which have been despatched all over the state.
On his part, Maharashtra Heath Minister Rajesh Tope has made no bones about his displeasure over the short supply of Covid-19 vaccines by the Centre. “While our requirement for the first phase of vaccination was 17.50 lakh doses, the cedntre has supplied us approximately 10 lakh dwoses. We need another 7.5 lakh doses. Eight lakh medical workers have registered themselves for vaccination on Covid-19 App,” Tope said.
In Mumbai, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has drawn up plans to vaccinate more than 35 lakh people in the coming months. For the purpose, the BMC has trained more than 7,000 people, while it is currently training another 10,000 people.
