Mumbai: After states like Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttarakhand, the Maharashtra government has announced that it will administer the Coronavirus vaccine to all its citizens for free. People aged 18 to 45 years will get the vaccine for free in government hospitals.
Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik announced the decision after it was approved in the state cabinet meeting.
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According to the inputs available, Maharashtra will need approximately 15 crore vials to be able to administer free vaccines to its citizens. To meet this target, the government has said that it will float a global tender so that it is able to procure enough vaccine doses.
From May 1, Phase 3 of India's vaccination campaign will be initiated wherein people above 18 years of age will be eligible to take the Covid vaccine shots. Online registration will begin for the same on April 28.
Maharashtra has given the highest number of vaccine doses so far. 1.42 crore vaccine doses have been given in the state. 1.23 crore people have received the first dose.
India's Coronavirus vaccination campaign began on January 16 this year.
After the Phase 3 vaccination drive was unveiled, states such as Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh announced that they will administer Covid vaccines to eligible citizens for free.
Meanwhile, recording the highest Covid death toll for three consecutive days, Maharashtra on Saturday reported 676 Covid-19 fatalities along with 67,160 new cases. This has taken its overall death toll to 63,928 which is the worst in the country and the overall caseload has crossed 42 lakh-mark reaching 42,28,836.
Mumbai witnessed a drop in new infections with 5,867 cases on Saturday, taking its Covid tally to 6,22,146 - 20 days after touching the highest daily spike of 11,206 cases on April 4.