With his Government having delayed the launch of Covid-19 vaccination for the people in the age group of 18-44 years owing to lack of adequate stocks of vaccines, Maharashtra chief minister Uddhav Thackeray said here on Friday that it was prepared to purchase entire quantity of 12 crore doses, if it was made available the vaccines needed for the third phase of vaccination in the state.
Two days after his government announced that it would give Covid-19 vaccine free of cost to all the people in the 18-45 years’ age group, but postponed indefinitely the launch vaccination programme scheduled for May 1 owing to lack of vaccine stocks, Uddhav urged the Centre to ensure increased availability of vaccines to the state.
Addressing the people across the state via video-conferencing, Uddhav said: “In all, we have six crore people in the 18-44 year age group and we need 12 crore doses if we are to give two doses each to them. From our side, our government is prepared to purchase the entire quantity of 12 crores at one go if it is made available to us. We are urging the Centre to consider our needs and make available as many vaccines as possible so that we can tide over the Covid-19 crisis at the earliest”.
“The Centre has entrusted us with the responsibility of undertaking vaccination for the people in the 18-44 years’ age group. We may be having a financial difficulty, but we are prepared to purchase 12 crores of vaccines required by us at one go. For us, saving lives is more important than money. That’s we have kept the money aside for the purpose,” the chief minister said.
“But, unfortunately, currently there are limited stocks of vaccines in the country. We are speaking to Pune-based Serum Institute of India (SII) and the government-run Bharat Biotech International Ltd (BBIL). We expect to get just 18 lakh doses of vaccines for the 18-44 years’ age group during May,” Uddhav said.