Maha Govt Refutes Claims Of Suspending Covid Vaccination Due To Glitch In CoWin, 'No Sessions Were Planned On These Days'

No covid vaccination sessions were planned on Sunday or Monday, Covid vaccination sessions will be organised in the next week as per GOI guidelines: Maharashtra government

A medic administers first dose of Covid vaccine on Rear Admiral Sheila Mathai, VSM Commanding Officer, INHS Asvini in Mumbai. (Image: PTI)

Mumbai: India administered the first day of the Covid vaccination drive on January 16 after PM Modi launched the world's largest inoculation drive virtually. While the country moves on to the 2nd day of the drive, there will be no vaccination in Maharashtra on January 17 and 18. The Udhhav govt has declared that the vaccination will continue from next week starting from Monday.

While Maharashtra public health minister Rajesh Tope told news agency PTI on Saturday that the cancelation of the vaccination drive is due to technical issues with the centre's software platform for managing the programme, the health department of the financial capital has changed its stance. The government said, "No covid vaccination sessions were planned on Sunday 17th or Monday 18th January. So the question of cancellation does not arise. Covid Vaccination sessions will be organized in the next week as per GOI guidelines."

On the first day of the immunisation campaign, the government said it aimed to vaccinate over 3 lakh people at over 3,000 vaccination centres established around the country. By the end of the day 1.91 lakh had been inoculated, it said.

On the first day of the vaccination drive, 65 percent of the frontline workers who were scheduled to receive the COVID-19 vaccine jab in Maharashtra were inoculated, an official told PTI.

No AEFI cases in Maharashtra

Barring about 10 cases of mild reaction among the beneficiaries in some of the districts, no major events of 'Adverse Effect Following Immunisation' (AEFI) were reported in the state. The state government, which has planned the immunisation drive according to the Centre allotted stock of vaccines over the next 28 days, has stated that it will demand the additional stock at the earliest.

The highest number of immunisations was reported in Mumbai (1,926) against 4,000, though the percentage (48.15 per cent) was the lowest in the state. Districts that clocked high percentage of inoculation included Hingoli (100 per cent ), Beed (90.2 per cent), Buldhana (95.83 per cent).